Shepard's Shadow
by 123azindude
Summary: Few men get a second chance to be the hero they yearned to be, even fewer are succesful the second time around. One man decides to do everything in his power to give the people in the galaxy an advantage, with one particular individual in mind, Commander Shepard. This story is an OC and SI insert, with perspectives of other characters of Mass Effect. Includes technology from Halo.
1. Prologue

Prologue

* * *

 _40 miles North of Mosul, Iraq – YPG territory_

 _Staff Sergeant Christopher "Mac" Zheng_

 _38th ERQS USAF_

 _21 Nov 2016 – 0220_

* * *

My feet pound into the dirt as gravity drives the weight of my equipment laden body into the ground. My knees buckle and I fall onto my side with all the grace of an elephant hit with a tranquilizer, as the breath simultaneously leaves my chest in a hurried gasp. I can hear the reverberating rasp of air in my mask as I catch my breath. An upward tug pulls my body as the wind captures my chute and tries to pull me along with it. Drawing from my experience, I hit the quick release on my harness and slip out of my jump harness and move to collect the rebelling fabric and gather it up in my arms. I look around and spot my gear a few feet away from me and grab my entrenching tool and begin digging a hole. While digging, I disconnect my breathing mask from my helmet and ditch it next to the parachute rigging at my feet. I quickly dump the contents at my feet into the hole and cover it up with the previously displaced sand, taking care to make sure it looks as undisturbed as possible.

As I hook up my comms and slip on my earpro, I check the function of my Mk 12 to make sure that it was undamaged in the drop. Satisfied as the bolt slams forward on a fresh mag, I activate my comms to reach my team.

"This is Red One, can I get a comms check, over _?"_ I question as I inspect my plate carrier for any rips. Finding none, I'm satisfied and readily slip on my ruck. I then switch on the IR strobe on the back of my helmet and check to ensure that my PVS-21s are securely attached to my helmet. I see three indicators light up on my HUD.

" _ **This is Red Two, how copy?" "Red Three, over." "Red four, copy?**_ _"_ I mentally sigh in quiet relief as the rest of my team comes in over the radio. I pull out a map and GPS from my admin pouch and shine an IR light from my helmet onto them.

"RV on me, we need to link up with the YPG 20 klicks south of here in 80 mikes." I scan my surroundings and I see three green figures approaching my position. We do a brief check of each other's gear and set off to the south. As we move silently across the desert sand, I then switch my comms to a different frequency and key my mike. I make a hand signal to my team to indicate that they do the same as well.

"Overlord, this is Red Actual. Angels have hit the ground and are on their way to the RV, ETA 80 mikes. How copy?" I say.

" _ **Red Actual, this is Overlord. We read you and have you on our scopes with the Predator. We'll keep you updated on any Tangos in your vicinity, over. Happy hunting Red Actual."**_

"Copy that Overlord, Red Actual out." I then switch my comms onto standby mode. The team and I proceed silently on foot for the next hour, the long trek being largely uneventful. Red Two and I go over our elevation charts and windage tables during the trip as well as delegating responsibilities for the mission and possible contingencies.

As we close in on the RV I see a flash of IR light 50 meters and a crackle in my comms. I key my mike and whisper "Whiskey," as I flash my IR light thrice.

" _ **Foxtrot**_ _."_ Crackles a hushed voice in my ear. I nod to my team and we jog over to the friendlies in front of us. As we draw closer I see four silhouettes rise up out of the underbrush. One of them moves towards us and I draw closer as well, both of us extending our hands towards each other.

I introduce myself "Mac, 38th ERQS."

He nods and returns the gesture, shaking my hand as he spoke. "Goose, SFOD-D."

 _Delta? The hell?_ I remark in silence. Unease begins to form in my gut, but I push it down and out of the way. _Guess my clearance isn't high enough._ "I was told that you'd be our ride to hell." I glance around, "I take it we've got some locals in the vicinity."

He nods, "Good eye, didn't expect that from chairborne." He grins, a perfect set of dull white teeth peering out from underneath his grizzly beard. He keys his mike twice and several silhouettes rise from the underbrush, numbering around twelve in number. "Some of the YPG's finest." He remarked.

"Didn't know a pilot warranted this many ground assets." I remarked.

Goose shook his head, "Normally they wouldn't, but we've got an ISIL HVT in proximity to your pilot, so command decided to task more assets to the mission." He paused. "What air assets are y'all bringing to the party?"

I recalled the mission brief and recounted the list to him "A pair of reapers equipped with JDAM payloads, an AC-130U will be on station at 0500, and we've got a carrier group in the Mediterranean with F/A-18s on standby about 15 mikes out. Not as much as I'd like, but it should get us out of any jam short of a full on Mogadishu mob." I pause and then continue. "Who's the HVT?"

"Domino." He answers.

I whistle in surprise, "Damn."

"Yeah, that's what I said." He signals to the rest of his team and YPG and they begin moving out. "We'll take you over to the technicals, I'm sure you're familiar with the layout of the compound?"

I nod, and signal for the rest of my team to follow. We follow the YPG commandos to four makeshift technicals. My team and I follow the Delta guys to a troop carrier variant with an enlarged bed, meanwhile a YPG soldier follows us onto the back of the truck.

I extend my hand to the YPG soldier which she takes with a grin. Goose introduces her, "Mac, this is Commander Baksi. She and her men will be creating a diversion two hundred meters north of the compound while we go in and extract your pilot, capture Domino and eliminate his men."

She nods "We've done many raids on the city over the past few weeks, Daesh won't suspect that we are going after your pilot."

"You English is impeccable." I noted.

She shrugged, "I studied at a university in Denmark, before the fighting here began and the land of my people called for me." She smiled. "I've heard the cries of many a Daesh dog, begging me to spare his life." She drew a knife. "Before I slit his wretched throat."

Goose chuckled, "She's a piece of work ain't she."

"Yeah," I replied, "glad she's on our side." I return my gaze to Goose, "So what's our entry plan? The mission planners have us entering the compound to the North and South with breaching charges, but I'm not big on multiple entries in confined spaces, not with a POW in the mix."

Goose nodded, "That's just asking for a blue on blue clusterfuck if you ask me. Y'all have any extra sub rounds for your side arms, we're out."

I nod and remove three 15 round glock mags from my pack and pass them over to Goose, the rest of my team mimicking my actions as they shared the ammo. "Here you go."

"Much appreciated." He slipped the three mags onto his plate carrier before continuing. "So the way I see it, we've got two options, we take out the guards in the back quietly and pick the lock on the door. From there we search silently for the pilot and take out any of the Haji fucks we find and grab any intel we can and confirm if Domino is down or has flown the coop." He paused, "But that's only if Baksi's diversion works and draws some of the guards to their position when we're exfil from the compound."

"And I take it the second option is a lot less quiet." I noted.

"Yeah, we set up a sniper's hide in the building across the street to the North and have three of us, two of your guys and one of ours, grab their attention while we breach silently from the south and fight our way towards the pilot and hopefully Domino who's interrogating him." He waited. "Not much of a plan either way, but I like to keep my ops simple and to the point."

"I like it, less chance of fuck ups. Any idea on force strength inside the compound?" I ask.

"Couple of locals we tapped for surveillance say that there are anywhere between 15-30 guys in that shit hole at a given time. So we could just be facing a couple of fireteams to a whole platoon." Goose shrugged. "It's a damned crapshoot, but it's the best chance we've had of taking out Domino in years."

"Plan sounds solid enough to me. Not airtight, but then again no op ever is. You've got knowledge in country so I'll defer to y'all." I replied

"Appreciate it, glad to see you chairborne guys aren't a bunch of loudmouths like the squids." He grinned.

I chuckle, "Well, we might like to fly but at least our heads aren't in the clouds when our boots are on the ground."

Goose leaned back on the railing of the truck, chuckling. "Roger that, you guys mind keeping watch? We're about 50 mikes out."

I nod "Sure soldier, you've earned it."

He nodded and gestured to the rest of the Delta team, all of them taking more comfortable positions in the back of the technical. Meanwhile, I go ahead and radio command to give an update. "Overlord, this is Red Actual, we've made contact with friendly YPG forces and are en route to the objective. Over."

" _ **Glad to hear that Red Actual, good hunting. Over and out."**_

"Overlord, there's something else. It wasn't just YPG, we've linked up with a Delta team, any heads up on your end? How copy?"

There's a pause before my comms squelch, _**"Uh, we haven't been given any notice of Delta assets in your AO, Red Actual. You should have made contact with an ODA team. We'll contact JSOC to confirm their mission and keep you up to speed on any developments, Over and out."**_

Red Two speaks up next to me, "You know I'd expect this kind of planning mistake from NSW not Army."

I shrug. "Could have just been a mistake when filing the paperwork man."

"If you say so, I'm kind of pissed we're not in the loop though." I ignore him and begin sorting through my gear.

After a few moments I turn to Red Two "Worm, what do you think, full or light load for medical gear?" I ask.

He taps his chin, "Hmm, I say we go in light and ditch the rucks in this technical, carry a few IV bags, stretcher, morphine drips and a light trauma kit. We can always administer more extensive trauma care once we're out of the compound on this technical."

I nod in agreement and begin setting up my gear. I notice Baksi staring at me with interest, while I sorted out my gear. "Can I help you ma'am?"

She blinked, unaware that I had noticed her staring. "You and your men, are you doctors?"

"PJs ma'am, though we like to think we're doctors, ain't that right Worm?" I say as I elbow him in the side. He grunts and mockingly glares at me.

"Speak for yourself, I graduated from MIT and got accepted into medical school, before I decided to grace this unit with my presence." He chided.

"You never got accepted, dumbass. You punched your interviewer for saying that he was skeptical of your meeting their entry requirements." I replied.

"Hey, it's not my fault, the dude was being an asshole." He grumbled.

Baksi giggled, "The two of you are funny, and you seem close."

Worm patted my shoulder rather forcefully, "Went through the pipeline together all the way from Indoc, what, eight years ago? He's been stuck with me since."

"Unfortunately," I sighed. As Worm continued bantering with Baksi, a wayward thought crossed my mind. _Hope this mission doesn't go sideways._ I shake the doubt from my mind, and keep my fears to myself.

* * *

 _Forty Five minutes later._

* * *

I walk silently, hugging the wall to my left, suppressor in my left hand and sidearm in the other. I carefully screw on the suppressor onto my G19's barrel threads, taking care to make as little noise as possible. I do a press check to ensure that a round is in the chamber and proceed along the wall until the southwest corner of the building is right in front of me. I check around the corner and see three guards by the door, one of them dozing off in a chair on the farside of the doorway, the other two casually chatting. I look back and signal to Worm that there are three hostiles ahead and one's asleep. He nods and signals that he'll take the one on the right down low. The two of us round the corner and draw a bead on our respective targets' heads. A suppressed puff of air exits the muzzle of our sidearms as the subsonic 9mm ammunition instantaneously turns the two Daesh fighters' brains to mush. I quickly transition my line of sight to the briefly startled guard, and end his miserable life with two rounds in his chest and one to the head before he could fully wake from his slumber. I see Goose's team crossing the courtyard to the southeast and moving on our position. Red three moves to the door and begins picking the lock, while Red four puts some oil on the door hinges.

"Nice and smooth, good work." Goose lowly remarked. He drew his sidearm and attached his suppressor, the rest of his team doing the same. "Leave two of your guys to guard our exit strategy."

As Red three and four finish opening the door silently, I signal for them to pull security, and they nod in response. They holster their sidearms and check the chambers on their M-4s while tightening the suppressors on the ends of their muzzles. I nod back at Goose "Got it covered."

"Good, watch our six. I don't want the Docs catching a round if I can help it."

"Understood." I reply. I nod to Worm and the two of us bring up the rear of the four Delta members. My heart begins pounding in my chest as we cross the threshold of the door and into the gaping mouth of the foreboding house's dark interior. A drop of anxious sweat ran down the back of my neck as the six of us silently crept through the interior of the building, with intermittent _pffts_ as bullets entered unsuspecting skulls and silent _swishes_ as knives slit unguarded throats and punctured unarmored chests, all the while blood was silently spilling down to the dust hewn floor of the building. Every ten meters, a small block of C4 with a remote detonator would be placed next to a door frame or load bearing pillar in the building. In a span of what seemed to be hours, we finally came upon a door that contained violent voices beyond it.

"Tell me Lieutenant Foster, what were your assigned targets before you were shot down?"

"Lieutenant… Jocelyn… Emily… Foster. 26 October 1992. United States Ai… Aaargh!" Her labored speech was interrupted by sharp screams of pain.

While this was occurring, one of the delta members began attaching a breaching charge to the door while the rest of the team holstered their sidearms and unslung their rifles. Worm and I follow suit with me bringing up the rear of the stack with my MK12. Goose holds out a hand indicating for us to wait, I glance at my watch and notice that eleven minutes had passed since entering the building. _Baksi should be kicking off her assault any minute now._ Just then a rumbling explosion goes off to the North. _There are the mortars, right on queue._

Goose then closes his hand into a fist and squeezes the shoulder of the point man. The point man nods to the three man on the other side of the door frame. He smiles and whispers, "Knock knock."

A thunderous bang resounds within the hallway as a shaped C4 charge blasts the door off of its hinges and into the room beyond. Within milliseconds the team begins funneling through the door and several sharp cracks and clacks fill the room as supersonic 5.56 rounds fly towards their targets and bolts slam forward as the action ejects and chambers a round. I bring up my rifle and cant it 45 degrees bringing up the reticle of my Leupold deltapoint onto a green figure holding an AKM and squeeze of three rounds into his chest. He limply falls to the floor, AKM still in his hands. I scan my sector for any more hostiles, with my cheek glued to the stock. I hear several "Clear!" calls coming around me as I walk towards the dead body and kick the rifle away from him. I yell "Clear!"

"All clear, Mac you're up." I nod and gesture to Worm to begin working on the patient. I begin by checking her pupils for dilation and feeling for her pulse on her neck. Seeing that all was good I begin speaking.

"Lieutenant, it's all good, you're among friendlies again. Now, I'm going to check you for spinal injuries, so tell me if you feel pressure when I press down." I begin by squeezing her toes between my fingers and she nods with a grimace, I repeat this with her finger tips and gently feel the vertebrae on her neck for any fractures. "Alright lieutenant, any pain in your chest or abdomen?"

She shakes his head, "No, I'm fine. Just get me out of here."

I nod and Worm proceeds to deploy the stretcher. We gently place her onto the stretcher and I proceed to tightly wrap paracord around her left bicep. "Alright lieutenant, you're a little dehydrated, so I'm going give you some IV fluid. Hope you're not scared of needles." I smile jokingly.

She painfully chuckled, "If this is your bedside manner, trooper, I'd hate to see how you treat your dates."

"Damn, eltee has some spunk." Goose remarked jokingly. I glance over at him and notice him restraining one of the people still alive. The rest of his team was gathering all the papers and hard drives in the room.

"Is that Domino?" I ask.

Goose grinned, "You bet your ass it is, we've been hunting this fucker for months." He said as he finished zip-tying his wrists and ankles. "You got any sedatives with you?" I toss him a syringe from my kit. "Much appreciated." He then injects the syringe into the man's neck and then raised the man's limp body over his shoulders in a fireman's carry.

"Why would he expose himself with the prisoner, after all this time of being incognito?" I ponder.

Goose shrugged, "Beats me, I'll leave that for the spooks to handle. You three ready to pack it up?"

Dispelling my uneasiness I respond, "Yeah, let's move." I hook up the IV bag to my plate carrier and pick up my end of the stretcher, while Worm gets the other.

As we get moving, my radio crackles to life _**"Red Actual, this is Overlord. Come in over."**_

Surprised I answer my comms, "Overlord, this is Red Actual. I read you over."

" _ **We've got you and Baksi's team on our scopes. YPG forces are currently getting pushed back and at risk of being cut off, they are retreating back to exfil. Additional Daesh forces are also massing at a city square approximately two klicks southeast of your position. I suggest you exfil from the area while you can. How copy?"**_

"Copy that, Overlord. Can we call in a drone strike on the massing enemy combatants? Over."

" _ **Negative Red Actual, firemission is not sanctioned due to possible civilian casualties. You'd have to wait until they are outside the city limits. How copy?"**_

"Copy that Overlord, Red Actual is oscar mike. Principle is secured. Over."

" _ **Copy that Red Actual, good work. We'll keep you up to speed on the situation down there. Overlord out."**_

My radio then dies down, I then notice Goose speaking into his comms as well.

"…Station, I repeat, Domino is in custody, and intel has been secured." A short pause. "I read you, we're oscar mike."

We glance at each other and the seven of us head for the exit, the Delta guys taking care to ensure no hostiles were lying in wait beyond any corners. Within seconds we crossed the threshold to the outside air and began crossing the courtyard. Red Three and Four brought up the flank while the Delta guys held point and rear security with the patient in the middle of the formation. Once we were approximately 80 meters from the compound, Goose pulled out a detonator and whispered "Boom." I feel the concussive blast hit me in the back as several C4 charges detonate, causing the structure to collapse and any hostiles still alive in the building to be buried underneath the rubble.

Without glancing back, the nine of us advance towards the direction of the parked technicals approximately 600 meters away beyond a hill. Once we reach the halfway point to the hill, we hear a sharp crack and the whiz of a bullet passing right by us. In a split second all hell breaks loose as sand and dust kicks up from the surrounding bullet impacts as well as the hot gases and spent brass cases ejecting from our teams' weapons.

"COVERING FIRE!" Goose yelled "MAC, TAKE DOMINO AND THE PRINCIPLE TO THE TECHNICALS, WE'VE GOT YOU COVERED!" I run up to his position and set my end of the stretcher down simultaneously with Worm's. I move over and relieve Goose of his burden and put Domino's limp form across my shoulders in a fireman's carry. I then grip my end of the stretcher again and rise up, grunting from the extra weight. With bullets whizzing by me I begin running.

I sprint towards the hill with everything I have, fear and adrenaline propelling me forward. I can feel my vision tunneling with only the top of the hill ahead in focus. As we draw closer I can feel several bullet impacts by my feet and their number steadily increasing as I near the hill. About fifty meters from the crest of the hill, I see several silhouettes pop up and begin firing. My stomach sinks briefly, until I see from the muzzle flashes that the barrels aren't pointed towards, but above me. Within seconds I come up over the top of the hill and run towards the bottom. I set down my burden immediately.

I unhook the IV bag from my plate carrier and signal to three of the YPG soldiers at the bottom of the hill near the technicals.

"You two, take her to our technical and keep this IV bag above her! And you dump this piece of shit somewhere in the technical, I don't care." I yell. Before I can get their acknowledgement I unsling my rifle and drop to prone at the top of the hill, whilst deploying my bipod. I increase the magnification on my Leupold scope from 3.5 to 10 magnification and switch on the IR illuminator on my weapon and set it to two degrees. I quickly acquire a cheek weld and notice that my teammates below are bounding towards my position in an Australian peel. I feel Worm's presence next to me as he begins spotting my targets.

"Mac 325 meters ahead, Third house from the right, southwest corner, 3rd story window." I adjust my elevation turrets on my scope to compensate. Worm throws a handful of sand in the air. "No crosswind, tailwind of approximately 5 mph. No adjust. Send package."

I nestle the buttstock of the weapon into my shoulder and gently push forward to load the bipod. I expel all the air out of my lungs and feel my heartbeat pounding in my chest. I center my crosshairs on the whitish green figure and gently squeeze the trigger. The buttstock of the weapon gives a light thump to my chest as the round travels down the barrel and towards its target. "Target down, shift aim to 2nd story window on the southeast corner. Same distance, no adjust." I shift my aim and squeeze the trigger a second time. "Target down."

Worm and I repeat this process until the rest of the team makes it up and over the hill. I activate my comms while continuing to pour out hot lead. "Overlord this is Red Actual, we've encountered heavy resistance and could use some covering fire for our exfil, how copy?"

" _ **We read you Red Actual, we've got one reaper tasked to your firemission, give us a minute to reposition the drone as Russian air assets are in your AO. How copy?"**_

"Copy that Overlord." In the distance, I see several explosions going off as Russian bombs land within Mosul. The fire coming at us dies down momentarily and I signal for Goose to go ahead and get to the technical _ **.**_ He nods and signals to Baksi for everyone to retreat. After a few seconds, the fire from our hill dies down and Worm is the only person left on the hill with me. In the span of several long and arduous seconds my radio comes to life. All while bullets continue to whiz past me from above and impact below my position

" _ **Red actual, drone is in position designate your target, copy?"**_

I turn on the IR laser on the front of my rifle. "Red Actual copies, Overlord. Target is designated, send package."

" _ **Package is sent Red Actual, bombs away."**_ The seconds tick by until a rumbling boom hits the building in front of me, with a second one following close behind. The building the ISIL fighters were firing from begins to crumble.

"Good effect on target Overlord, proceeding to exfil. How copy?" I speak into the mike.

" _ **Copy that Red Actual, I suggest you step on it. The locals are getting restless. Overlord out."**_

"Roger that, we're oscar mike." I pick up my weapon and jog towards the technical where the rest of the team is waiting and the vehicles are idling by. As we grow closer to the vehicles, the convoy begins heading out. Goose holds his hand out as I near the technical and I grab it as soon as I am able. I feel myself being hauled up into the truck bed and steady my footing as I come up to Goose's level. I look to my side and see Worm being hauled up in a similar fashion by one of the other Delta members. I proceed towards the front of the truck with Worm following close behind. We arrive at the area where Red Three and Four are tending to the Lieutenant. "How's the patient." I ask. Worm silently plops down on the bench to my left, crossing his arms nonchalantly, though I know he is listening as intently as I am.

Red Three looks up while Red Four is monitoring her vitals. "Patient is stable, BP is 125/75 and a pulse of 126 bpm. O 2 saturation is less than ideal at 92%, but acceptable. We've got her on oxygen to compensate. She's also got some skin lacerations and bruising from the interrogation, but low risk of infection. We had a mild spike in her vitals when the ordnance exploded so I gave her a mild sedative to calm her nerves. She'll pull through."

I nod satisfied, "How are you feeling Lieutenant?"

She drowsily craned her neck up to make eye contact and gave me a thumbs up with a lazy grin. "The drugs are awesome, but these guys' hospitality makes me miss your bedside manner."

As I chuckle at her drugged attempt at humor, my comms squelch with life _**"Red Actual, this is Overlord, priority message incoming. Respond."**_

Alerted out of my brief sense of security I respond to the hail. "Overlord this is Red Actual, send traffic, over."

" _ **Red Actual, we just got word from JSOC. There are no Delta assets near Mosul, I repeat, there are no Delta assets in Mosul."**_

My blood froze and a stone dropped into the pit of my stomach as uneasiness and foreboding overcome me. I take a quick glance at the rest of my teammates who heard the message, and see that they had tensed and frozen in place. The tension was so thick that a bullet could not have penetrated it.

Thinking quickly I move to grab my knife and unholster my sidearm, ready to fight my way out, when suddenly a sharp crack explodes behind me and I feel the strength escape from my body. Time begins to slow to a crawl, my ears lose their hearing, and I feel numbness in my throat and as I weakly reach a hand up to it, my knees begin to give out. Where my larynx formerly resided I feel only a pulpy mess, and a warm liquid flowing down my chest and my back. As the scene in front of me begins to tilt and the bottom of my vision becomes replaced by the truck bed, I see my teammates rush to ready their weapons, only to be met with a deplorable fate mirroring mine. Red Three and Four go down almost instantly, pink mist exiting out the backs of their skulls. I see Worm to the left bringing up his sidearm only to fall back from multiple rounds hitting his abdomen under his plate carrier, through his sides and his dominant arm. He begins to collapse backward onto the seat that he had just a split second earlier tried to rise from. As the floor rushes up to meet me, I see his head slump forward, wheezing with each breath as his lungs collapse as the higher air pressure invades his chest cavity.

I try to yell, but I'm only able to let out a strangled gargle and then I feel a dull impact on my forehead as I meet the truck bed with my helmeted head. I manage to weakly crane my neck to the left and see a boot fill my vision and then suddenly vanish. I feel dull vibrations through my chest that conflict with my struggling heart. The foreign vibrations gradually grow weaker and eventually stop. My hearing fades back to me and I hear a voice.

"Sorry Lieutenant, nothing personal, just business." I hear soft sobbing in the background and realize that the patient is still alive.

I try to yell _NO_ but again, I'm only able to manage a strangled gargle, much weaker than the last. I struggle to move my right arm, finger tips twitching, wanting to do anything to stop him, I can't give up. My thoughts grow cloudier as my heart beats away its remaining life. _I… need to… stop… only … one…_

My efforts are interrupted as a sharp crack reaches my ears and the sobbing I heard before has stopped. All the remaining energy that I had managed to summon leaves my body as I have no more reason to fight. My chest hurts, I can't breathe. I can feel myself drowning in my own blood and my body grows colder as my blood pools around my head and I lose all sense of being all along my body. The edges of my narrowed vision have black clouds encroaching on the center. I can feel the last vestiges of my consciousness fading. _Not… like… thi_

 _Hey there everyone, this is the author. I apologize for rebooting the story, but in my haste I had written myself into a corner and was unable to brainstorm of a way to include all of the pre Mass Effect 1 events I wanted without making the story cluttered and a mess. I hope you all enjoy this new work, but there won't be a regular release schedule, because I will be taking my time with this story._

 _Also, some procedures and operational methods have been simplified or omitted from this chapter to make for a better plot development_ _(and also not putting some stuff on a public forum for obvious reasons)_ _. So for those of you who have been outside the wire, try not to get an aneurism. Also,_ _I am_ _not a former PJ, just worked with them._


	2. Chapter 1 - New Beginnings

Chapter 1 – New Beginnings

 _Forerunner Shield World A0246_

 _Christopher "Mac" Zheng_

 _Redacted_

 _1 December 2016 - 0630_

* * *

My thoughts are clouded by darkness, blurred by incoherence and unable to form concretely. My sense of self fades in and out as well as my awareness of what a body should be. I swim in the vast swirling chaos of nothingness as I feel and see nothing. This sensation seems to endure infinitely and I feel my powerlessness in changing anything. _I… am…_ I float riding the waves of darkness and limply follow the current that carries me to destinations unknown.

The monotonous absence of feeling is then interrupted by a feeling. I feel something cold… on my… back? I see redness overcome the black around me and I feel cold metal on my skin. My abdominal muscles scream as I sit up and I gasp for air. My eyes open up, blinded by light and able to see only white. My hand goes for my throat and to my disbelieving fingers it is whole and absent of either the pulpy meat or the slick lifeblood that I vaguely remember being there. A high pitched ringing resounds in my skull and slowly fades a way to be replaced by a low and foreign thrumming that I can barely distinguish from the blood pounding in the capillaries next to my ear drums. I take a breath. _I can breathe… I'm alive… how is thi-_

"Mornin' Sunshine." I hear a familiar voice off to my right. I quickly crane my neck and will my eyes to focus on the blurry shape in front of me. A man sized blur slowly begins to form in contrast to the intensely white backdrop that I had previously been seeing. A blue hue gradually begins to overtake the whiteness as my vision sharpens.

"Max? What the fuck?" I'm incredulous. The vivid memory of my best friend struggling with his last breaths brings itself to the forefront of my consciousness.

He wryly chuckles. As his silhouette begins to sharpen I see him rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, that's about my reaction when I woke up too."

I sit there dumbfounded and then, unable to help myself, say what's on my mind. "Well fuck, if you're here, then I guess this is hell, huh? Damn it man, even death won't let me escape your ugly face."

"Well, it's good to see death didn't fuck with your humor Chris." Worm said as his wry chuckle was replaced with a hearty laugh. After a few laughs, his face then turned to a more serious visage. "But I'm pretty sure we haven't bought the farm yet, brother. My vitals are still going strong and I'm breathing. I don't think we need air in the afterlife."

"Yeah, I agree with you on that, but we definitely died on that technical, so what the hell is going on?" I think aloud.

Worm sighed in response, "Beats me man, I woke up just seconds before you did, or at least I think it was a few seconds, can't really tell how time is passing in this place." There was a pause of several heartbeats before a dull thud reached my eardrums. Anger tinged Worm's voice as he spoke to me again, "But fucking hell man, I can't believe those bastards got the drop on us. I fucking knew there was something off about those fuckers!" He pointed a finger at me, one that was less accusatory and more used for emphasis. "I know you felt it too man, That fucking Goose dude was too fucking friendly to be Delta." He pounded the table again. "FUCK!"

I clench my fist, Worm's anger infecting me more readily than any virulent pathogen. "We were sloppy, too focused on the hostage. I should have waited for HQ to verify before we did anything, but I wanted to save that pilot."

"Yeah I feel you man, who knows what those Haji fucks could be doing to a woman in their custody, especially an infidel one. She didn't have much time before they would have broken her. Fucking animals." Worm agreed.

"But look what happened to us, we got sloppy and screwed the pooch big time. Instead of saving her we sedated her and left her helpless as she was executed, all because we thought we were in the clear and home free." This time I slam my fist on whatever it is I'm sitting on. "FUCK MAN! That shit shouldn't have gone down like that!" I pause, a realization dawning on me, "wait, where are the othe-"

"Not here man, just you and me." Worm replied sadly.

"Shit." My heart weighing heavily with guilt. "Some team leader I am huh? Whole team and the patient wiped out like dogs."

I then feel a punch to my face that disorients me. _Fucking hell, when did he punch this hard._ While still reeling from the hit and my ears responding to it in kind with and incessant ringing, I hear Worm angrily voice his rebuttal. "Don't start a pity party with this shit Chris, we all fucked up, it wasn't just you! I was right next to you for the whole mission and I still couldn't stop this shit!"

I could hear his soft padded footsteps as he walked back to his seat, which I notice is a table with strange blue lights and out of focus, indistinguishable holograms around its perimeter. His retreating figure comes into much clearer focus and I notice that he is wearing some sort of bulky black body suit, which leads me to inspect my own body to see that I'm in a similar get up.

"Uh, Max, what the fuck are we wearing?" I ask him.

He sits down, inspecting himself half-surprised at what he found. "Huh, not sure man. I actually didn't notice it to be honest, what with this shitty blurred vision and all that. His facial features come into focus and I notice him blink a few times and then transition to squinting. "Seriously, did dying fuck up my eyesight? I can barely make out your face and these glowing tables man." He squeezed his right fist a couple times, as if to rework the blood into it by force. "But man, I think dying gave you an iron jaw Chris, cause it felt like I was hitting a concrete wall when I punched you."

I chuckle, "And I think death did the opposite of atrophying your muscles, cause that punch was fucking solid man. I remember your punches were like getting hit by marshmallows thrown by a toddler and not rockets launched by Muhammad Ali."

Worm flashed a sarcastic and toothy grin at me, "Go fuck yourself, Chris. I mean it in every sense of the word." He paused, his thoughts etched in lines across his forehead. "But really though, when I went to punch you my body moved fast."

"Yeah you didn't give me a chance to put my guard up man, talk about a cheap shot." I counter.

He shakes his head, his facial features displaying his seriousness. "No, I mean I got to you the second I thought about knocking the sense back into your skull. And I just counted my paces back from your position. That was 28 feet man."

"So? 28 feet isn't really that far to lunge at a guy." I reply, slightly bewildered.

"No man, you don't get it. When I lunged at you, after I kicked off the ground, I only took two steps and I was on you." Worm replied, concern and confusion coloring his voice.

"Yeah, I think that's not normal."

"Neither is coming to life after bleeding out from a gsw to the neck or asphyxiation from collapsed lungs." Worm pointed out.

"Good point man, I'd really like to know what is goi-" My brow furrows as I get a clearer picture of the holograms that ring the table I am sitting on. As I inspect closer, I notice that they are hieroglyphs that are eerily familiar. _Wait, no, it can't be._

"Chris, what happened?" Worm asks concernedly.

"Max, don't these holograms look… familiar?" I look around the room and my eyes are finally able to focus on my surroundings. The architecture of the room and the textures look uncannily recognizable. "Actually, this room… I feel like I've seen something like this before, at least the architecture style."

Worm followed my lead and began looking around the room as well. "No way." He breathed.

"What?" I ask.

"This looks Foreru-" Out of the corner of my eye, to the left, I notice the previously seamless wall split open with a pneumatic hiss. In this new opening I see a feminine silhouette outlined by an intense blue tinged light. As the figure's features sharpen my jaw drops in disbelief.

" **I am glad to see you have awakened Reclaimers."** An aged, motherly voice reaches my ears, and I can feel myself relaxing at the as her calming aura envelopes me.

I stammer, "You're… You're…"

She faintly smiles, **"Yes, Reclaimer I am Librarian."** She quickly turned on her heels and made for the door that she had entered from. She glanced back at us when she noticed that we hadn't moved. **"Come, we have much to discuss."**

Worm and I glance at each other briefly before following in her wake. We follow her lead down a brightly lit blue hallway that appears to go on forever. After a few moments of tangible silence, Librarian addresses us **"The two of you seem to be intimidated by my presence."** She stated without glancing back at us.

"Just a little bit ma'am." I answered, though what she said was more of a statement than a question. "If this isn't a dream, then you're the person responsible for preserving humanity."

"You are in a sense, modern humanity's mother, ma'am." Max added.

" **I am undeserving of such reverence."** She briefly halted before shoulders slumped slightly in either shame, sadness, or remorse. I am unable to tell. **"During the war with your ancestors I wished for nothing else than the eradication of your species. Regrettably, it was not until later, when your people's worlds were burned to cinders and majestic fleets torn asunder, that I realized the nobility of your species. My actions thereafter were my personal atonement, and now I reside here in self-exile as punishment for my failures."** She turned around and faced us. **"I hope you will forgive my selfishness, as I will be asking much of the two of you in the troubling times ahead."** She turned back on her heels and proceeded to continue down the hallway. **"I am sure the two of you have many questions."**

I glance at Worm and he nods at me to go ahead first. "Ma'am, how did we get here? I vividly remember dying before I woke up in this place."

" **You were preserved through the Composer, scanned moments before your consciousness was lost to the cold embrace of death. And here is where your bodies were reconstructed and your minds implanted."**

"I thought minds scanned by the Composer led to fractured personalities?" Max questioned.

"And weren't your attempts to reconstitute those personalities largely unsuccessful?" I added.

She sighed, **"Yes, unfortunately, the both of you are correct. The minds stored in the Composer eventually degraded and the individuals they were before eventually lost their sense of self. As for those we tried to save by making them organic again… the Flood were the only greater of the horrors I had seen in all my life."**

"So how are the two of us here, and breathing?" Max asked.

" **You are aware of how I genetically planned for the Master Chief?"** She asked. Before we could answer she continued. _Guess that was rhetorical._ **"The Composer in its present state, was useless for those who were among the living, no amount of genetic modification could prepare us for the corruption that the Composer would inflict on our minds. However, in all our trials and mistakes I began to understand how to immunize an individual to the Composer's effects through their genetic coding. However, it was only through the development in the womb and maturation with this specific genetic code that an individual would be inoculated to corruption or being Composed. I stored the genetic code in the catalogued individuals for your species, where it would take many generations for it to come to fruition. The Master Chief's immunity to the Composer would take a much longer time to fully materialize in humanity's gene pool."** She paused. **"However, for the two of you, your trait allows your minds to weather the stresses of the Composer and reconstitution, so that you would not form an abomination unsuitable for my needs and the people you will lead to salvation."**

Worm and I glance at each other. I ask another question, "I'm sure that there is a reason, but why did we have to be on the verge of death to be Composed?"

" **Your immunity to the Composer's corruption only activates when your consciousness is at its most stable. In your final moments, your brain releases a burst of electrical activity that, in effect would stabilize your mind for its final moments. It is then that the genetic code inside of you actualizes, and protects you from corruption inside the Composer's matrix."**

"What about the rest of our team, our patient?" Max inquired.

" **Unfortunately they did not possess your immunity, so they were not preserved. They were lucky, I did not steal away their right to a peaceful rest."** She replied solemnly. **"I fear, the both of you will not be so fortunate. There are many dangers ahead on the mission I will ask of you, with death as a lesser consequence should you fail."**

"Ma'am, we're soldiers, a high chance of death comes with the territory." Max replied. I nod solemnly in agreement. "But what exactly is this mission you're giving us?"

" **After our war with your ancestors, and before the full brunt of the Flood infestation smothered our worlds, the Builders reached a much higher understanding of slipspace. We were approaching the level of the Precursors, until the Flood diverted our focus onto war for a second time. Fortunately, before the flood threat manifested, the Builders managed to access a parallel universe, one that is very similar yet so different than ours. This Shield World is where they discovered a way into that universe. Sadly, this facility was one of the first abandoned in our war with the Flood."** She pauses for a brief moment, likely contemplating how to proceed. **"When the Didact began composing your species to build his army of Prometheans, I was desperate, searching for any way to save humanity from his madness. I had catalogued several specimens for reseeding, but the war against the Flood grew more desperate, and I feared that the galaxy would soon be lost."**

"So you sent some of us into the other universe." I stated. _So where do we fit into this?_

" **That is correct."** She nodded. **"However, in my haste to save humanity from extinction, I had unwittingly subjected them to a new foe that threatens the very fate that would have befallen them at the hands of my husband. You know them as a organic machine hybrid monstrosity called the Reapers."**

I stand there, trying to recall what the term Reapers means, recalling a sense of doom when hearing that word. However, Max's words serve to jog my memory on the spot. "Wait, so those giant space squids were real." _Ooooh, those Reapers. Wait…_ I jog a bit to catch up again.

Before I can ask Librarian begins speaking. **"I will explain why you about this universe as well as this one. The game you call Halo, is more of a prediction with my gene plan than a factual representation of events. I do not know what will transpire in the later centuries and can only hope for the best. However, the Mass Effect universe is a representation of all the possibilities, choices and actions that could occur."**

"Why the difference?" Max asked.

" **Time is one domain that we have not fully mastered, nor one that we understand fully. However, the connection to the parallel universe is not anchored by time, thus allowing me to view events as they would occur. It is also because of this shift in the passage of time that the Builders did not construct facilities there. Instead, we only view data received from probes and other monitoring machines, scattered throughout the galaxy."**

"But how did that information get inserted into our culture as a… videogame?" I asked, incredulous.

" **I have manipulated the genetic code of your species many times and have an intimate understanding of humanity. Coding in prior history of this universe, my genetic plan for your species, and the critical moments of another universe is simple when compared to devolving a species that rivaled my own. However, some of the information has become… corrupted."**

Confused, I speak up. "How so, ma'am?"

" **Do you recall who the protagonist of the series was?"** She inquired.

Max and I glance briefly at each other before he answers for us both. "It's Commander Shepard, is that person just a fictional character?" I inwardly wince at the irony of his statement.

She shakes her head, **"No, Commander Shepard is very much alive, and as pivotal a player as you remember. However, the gender and some events pertaining to the Commander is slightly inaccurate."** Without waiting for us to ask, she continues. **"While you were able to choose your gender, the Commander has always been a woman."**

"So the male version of Shepard is actually fictional then." I conclude.

" **That is both correct and incorrect."** She glances towards me and sees the puzzled look that comes across my face. **"While Commander Shepard is a female, her male counterpart is based on a real individual. He would be referred to as Major Shepard."**

"Why is there only one Shepard in the game then?" Max asked.

" **He perishes on the moon of Torfan, long before Saren's betrayal on Eden Prime. He is the Commander's older brother. His contribution to the war is largely inconsequential when compared to his sister."**

I see a door growing larger in my field of view as we proceed farther on down the hallway. I decide to give the more pressing question on my mind the chance to be spoken. "Where do the two of us fit into all of this? Why the trouble?"

She promptly answered, **"In all the iterations that I witnessed, I saw all the races rallying behind humanity as they confronted the dire threat of extinction. Without them, the races of the galaxy would have perished in the same manner as those before them. One individual always stood at the center of humanity in those times, Commander Shepard. Sadly, once the war was over, she would never be able to witness the fruits of her labor. Never would she grow old, make babies, or die in peaceful rest."** She paused momentarily, **"If Humanity is to accept and bear the mantle in that galaxy, the loss of such an exceptional hero would hamper their efforts to prove themselves worthy of being caretakers of all life."**

"So you want us to make sure she lives through it all? I'm sorry ma'am but we're just a couple of combat medics that can fight better than the average soldier. I doubt we can save one person from megalithic space squids, let alone an entire galaxy." I reply, somewhat flabbergasted. I see Worm nodding next to me in agreement. _What the hell?_ _We're not trained for this._ We arrive at the door where Librarian pauses and turns around to face us.

" **Do not discredit yourselves, for you are as noble as any warrior I have seen or met, Forerunner or Human. Your thoughts as you faced death affirmed my choice."** She turned towards Max. **"In your final gasping breaths ,the single most pervading thought was to fight. When your best friend had fallen, you fought not for survival, but for vengeance for your friend's demise. Even as your consciousness faded, you sought retribution and justice, qualities deemed admirable even among the most elite of warriors."** She then turned towards me. **"And you, as you drowned in your own blood and your comrades fell around you, your only thought was to save the helpless wounded under your care. Even as your consciousness faded to the cold embrace of death you sought to protect, no matter how futile it was. You bear the spirit of a protector, one that will be needed for the task at hand."** The door behind her opens and she lightly smiles. I look behind her and my jaw drops to the floor in surprise. **"I would also not send you to battle unprepared."**

As Worm and I walk through the door, we walk into what appears to be an armory as the wall to the left is lined with all sorts of weaponry that ranges from human designs to more alien ones. However, what draws our attention are the two sleek, black, humanoid figures in the middle. In the background I glimpse an alien forest with thick vegetation threatening to invade the room. The only barrier to their goal is a shimmering blue energy field. However, my focus remains on the two imposing statues of armor.

Worm speaks up first. "Is that… Mjolnir?" My eyes are drawn to the thin red visor on the pitch black RECON helmet, menace and power seeping out of every discernable surface. The sleek lines of the PREFECT armor adding to the aura emanated by the empty suit.

 _Wait._ I glance back at Librarian, who's standing in the doorway. I turn back to the armor, taking it in. Worm speaks up again, "Ma'am we're not Spartans, how are we going to use this without augmentations?"

" **But you are augmented."** Max and I wheel around in surprise. **"When I reconstructed your bodies I added enhancements that would make you more effective warriors."**

I glance down at my palm and close it into a fist and then open it. _Feels… normal._ I glance back up. "Then why do I feel so… normal. Nothing feels like it's changed."

"Same here." Worm added.

She smiled. **"When your bodies were reconstructed, I reactivated the genes that were deactivated during your species devolution, additionally you were given many enhancements on par with the Spartan II's. Your mind's acclimation to your new bodies should have been short and occurred upon your awakening. "**

 _So that explains the blurry vision._ Librarian then walks up to the armor pieces and places her hands on both of them on their chests. Before my eyes I watch them dissolve into brilliant blue flakes of light. Her upturned palms show a blue crystal floating above each palm. She then gently pushes them towards us and they touch the center of our chests on the black bodysuits we're wearing. In a split second, I see my hands covered in armor and a HUD forming in front of my eyes. I glance over at Worm and notice that he is incased in the armor we had been studying earlier. I will my arm to move up to my chin, trying to think and take in what I had just seen, however, much to my chagrin, my arm moves much faster than I had wanted and my hand collides with the chin of my helmet. Before I know it I'm reeling on my feet, disoriented and seeing black spots on my vision. _Well that fucking hurt._ I can hear Max chuckling to my right. _Yeah, go ahead and laugh, fucking asshole._

* * *

 _Forerunner Shield World A0246_

 _Max "Worm" Hill_

 _Redacted_

 _1 December 2016 - 1300_

* * *

After spending a few minutes adjusting to the new armor, Max and Chris spent several hours testing out the various weapons at the armory. The two of them had been using the forest beyond the force field as a proving center, which turned out to be a very sophisticated combat simulator. Within its confines they tested out the various weapons on simulated targets like Geth, mercenaries, biotics and Cerberus troopers. From what they experienced, the human weapons were adequate for taking down the enemy, since the tungsten carbide projectiles were unaffected by the magnetic shielding used by the enemy. However, barriers proved to be a problem. Using the kinetic hardlight bolts remedied it, but the plasma weapons of the covenant proved to be better suited against enemies with barriers. _Probably should use this kind of thing against the collectors._ Max thought to himself. However, it was the Promethean weaponry that showed the most devastation to all targets. The two of them agreed that unless absolutely necessary, using this weaponry should be reserved until the final stages of the war, so as to prevent hostile factions from receiving the weapon, and so that the Reapers would not develop a countermeasure for the advanced weaponry, should it fall into the wrong hands.

One weapon that proved to be the most conducive to clandestine missions is the M7S suppressed SMG with a Hardlight kinetic bolt modification attached to it. The caseless ammunition wouldn't leave brass behind, reducing their mission footprint, and the projectiles would disintegrate with the target due to highly ionizing nature of the hardlight coating. After spending several hours going over the weaponry and ideal missions for using them, Librarian entered the armory once again a faint smile on her face.

" **I see the two of you are enjoying yourselves. However, I am afraid we are running out of time. If you would follow me."** She quickly turned on her heels and walked away. _Or is it more like gliding?_ Max shook the irrelevant thought from his head and followed after her. They followed her and rounded corner after corner until they came upon another door. Before them, was a sleek and predatory vessel, one that seemed avian in its construction. The light seemed to glance off the surface of the black paint, leading to its outline being indefinite despite its relative proximity to him. Chris whistled off to his left.

"She's a beautiful ship, why a prowler though?" Chris asked.

" **For the journey you are about to undertake, it is best if you conducted it in the shadows, at least until Saren has revealed his intentions to the galaxy."** As they drew nearer to the ship, Librarian turned around and spoke again. **"Before you go, there is someone you should meet. Lord of Admirals."** A blue hologram came to life beside her, a regal and noble man whose head was shrouded with shoulder length hair, whose body clothed in pragmatic armor, suited for use as a ship's captain. His countenance and posture exhibited power and intelligence. **"These are the two warriors that will be accompanying you."**

" _I see that they have adjusted to their combat skins. I will see the two of you on the ship, I must finalize the preparations for our mission."_ With that his image dissolved into the background.

Max spoke up, "Was that really – "

Librarian interrupted him, **"No it is an ancilla based on a portion of his fragmented personality that was stored within the composer. The fragment I was given to interrogate was converted into a stable ancilla. His strategic wherewithal should be an asset in the final conflict. And since your window is closing, I advise you to make haste."** She said, gesturing towards the Prowler.

"What's our destination ma'am?" Chris questioned.

" **The planet Reach, Epsilon Eridani System, 2165"**

* * *

 **CODEX**

 _MJOLINIR Mk VIII_

Armor Plating – Composed of high strength, light weight forerunner alloys, the armor is the perfect amalgamation of speed, power, and efficiency.

-Shielding – Possesses both Kinetic Barriers and Energy Shielding to afford better protection to the operator and combat a wide range of threats. Can be supplemented by the armor's integrated omni-tool and Hardlight generator to produce tech armor when in a frontline engagement. Use of the supplementary system is ill advised in infiltration operations, due to the blue lighting giving away the user's position, as well as distorting the camouflage suite in the armor

-Nano Composite Body Suit – Adaptable to new combat situations it encounters and capable of self repair off the field and in lulls in fighting, the bodysuit is built with a hydrostatic gel layer for homeostasis and impact cushioning, reactive circuits and neural implant connector to decrease reaction times of the user, force multiplying circuits and artificial nano-muscle fibers to increase the wearer's strength and a liquid waste recycling system

-Hardlight Emitters – may act as tech armor generators and maneuvering thrusters on the ground or EVA operations.

-Dual Microfusion Plasma Generators – Supplies power to the armor and its various systems as well as supply power to the user's weapon (Promethean Hardlight-ion weapons only)

-Element Zero Core – Used in conjunction with Hardlight Emitters to maneuver easily and quickly on the battlefield

-Active Camouflage Suite – Used instead of photoreactive panels to prevent loss of stealth capabilities if armor is damaged in battle or prolonged use in the field. Extensive heat is generated by the system in exchange for prolonged use in the field of more than 24 hours. A temporary fix to avoid being compromised in mission is to sink the heat into the armor's reactor, though it is inadvisable to do so more than once within 48 hours.

-Power Uplink – Supplies power to Shadow Team's weapons, supplying a steady stream of power, but takes time to recharge the weapon fully. Recharge can be interrupted to fire a shot.

-Energy Dagger – Melee weapon composed of a magnetically shaped blade of high energy plasma.

 _Capabilities of the Modified Sahara Class Prowler_

-Active Camouflage Suite

-Coolant and Heat Exchange System

-Engine Baffles

-Forerunner Slipspace Generator

-Forerunner Engines

-Energy shielding

-Slipspace Translocator Platform

-Bow mounted energy projector with sentinel beam turrets on the port, starboard, and stern

-16 Slipspace mines

 _Lord of Admirals –Forthencho Psych Profile_

The once leader of the great civilization of ancient humanity before their devolution to a Tier 7 tribal species, the Lord of Admirals was both a formidable warrior and an excellent strategist. Unfortunately, humanity's war with the Flood weakened their capabilities considerably, leaving them vulnerable in their war with the Forerunners. It should be noted that at the end of the conflict, Forthencho willingly surrendered at Charum Hakkor to end the conflict and accept Humanity's fate.

As an advisor to Christopher Zheng and Max Hill, Forthencho regards modern humanity with both sadness and hope, as he recalls the once great might of humanity lost to time, and sees its rise to prominence in this galaxy and his. His view on relations with Zheng and modern humanity can be viewed in a Fatherly manner, fiercely protective of his descendants, as they are now the only indicators that his people existed at all

* * *

 **Author's Note**

So here's chapter 1. Not sure if you can tell, but midway through I was really struggling with the dialogue, and now I'm just happy I got through all of this exposition. Mostly just a setup chapter, and the next one will be better as I will be more motivated to write it. Leave a review, as they can help me improve my weaknesses.


	3. Chapter 2 - Warm Up

Chapter 2 – Warm Up

* * *

 _Indris System - Camala_

 _Skarr_

 _Krogan Mercenary – Employed by Edan Had'dah_

 _26 June 2165 - 1745_

* * *

Skarr had seen the Systems Alliance frigate, the _SSV Iwo Jima,_ approaching long before it fired the lethal volley that took out the first of the Blue Sun rovers. Its arrival was an inconvenient, but not unanticipated, event. Moving with a quick but calm sense of purpose, he leaped out of his own rover and started shouting orders. Following his commands, the Blue Sun mercs quickly unloaded and assembled the portable mass accelerator cannon they'd stashed in the back of the vehicle.

As he readied the now assembled weapon by loading in a packet of explosive rounds his attention was diverted from the Alliance Frigate bearing down on them by a cry to his right. That and the sudden staccato of sharp cracks and explosions. He glanced to his right and, to his surprise, was greeted with the sight of the pulpy remains of what had been a batarian mercenary. The only identifiable feature was the scraps of ceramic blue armor and four eyes in the pulp of brain matter and skull fragments. As he was processing the image, he heard a metallic clink below him. Curious, he quickly glanced down at his feet to see a round metal sphere at his feet with a flashing red light on it. _Shit._ He quickly dove out of his perch at the back of the rover. A loud explosion reverberated in his wake and several secondaries lit up, throwing miniaturized in the area. He heard many cries of surprise and agony as the armor of several mercenaries around him were shredded, and their flesh rent apart.

Skarr quickly picked himself up, his blood beginning to boil as his body began to be overtaken by his species' infamous blood rage. _What the hell was that?"_ He scanned the surroundings and much to his surprise he saw only two assailants in jet black armor massacring the mercenaries. He saw one of them kick out the legs of a batarian, sending the unfortunate four eyed alien flat onto his back and staring wide eyed and helpless as the embodiment of death plunged an armored fist into his face, crushing the miserable being's skull into pulpy flesh and powdered bone before he could register that his legs had been pulverized by the previous kick.

Skarr then notices one of the armored berserkers turn its head towards him. For a split second the two stare at each other in the eyes, or that is what Skarr presumed he was doing as he stared at the menacing, thin, red visor. As his opponent directed the barrel of his weapon at him, Skarr directed a surge of dark energy into his biotic barrier, and charged at his opponent, his legs driving into the ground propelling him forward. Despite his size, Skarr was incredibly fast and agile and closed the distance of 50 meters within seconds. All while a flurry of rounds impacted his barrier like a swarm of angry hornets and exploded. As he drew nearer he withdrew his shotgun and fired off a blast from the powerful claymore. The gun immediately overheated, but its power would have been more than sufficient to incapacitate his target, if he had managed to hit it.

In the blink of an eye, his opponent had sidestepped to his left in an instant and swung an armored gauntlet in his direction. In a split decision Skarr rears back his head and meets the fist with his head plate and the two collide with an audible thud. The fist bouncing back from the biotic barrier, and Skarr's skull rebounding from some unknown barrier that shimmered gold. The two opponents were staggered momentarily from the collision. Drawing from his many years of experience, Skarr immediately vents the heat sink on his shotgun, despite his disorientation, and prepared for a second round. As his vision refocused he noticed that his opponent was now surrounded by several panels of shimmering blue light. _Well, that's new._ He thought.

Disregarding the new development, Skarr lunged forward, his opponent doing the same. As they grew closer, Skarr readied his shotgun, waiting until his opponent was at arm's length to fire off his second shot. As his finger tightened on the trigger and began squeezing it. As he smiled, anticipating the bloodied remains of this mysterious foe, a flash of blue light swept across his vision. As he felt the tactile click of the trigger actuating, he was bewildered by the lack of recoil he was so accustomed to feeling from his weapon. As he glanced down he saw the front end of the shotgun falling towards the dirt. Before he could register the new development with his weapon, an armored gauntlet impacted into his abdomen making him grunt as his barriers absorbed most of the kinetic energy of the punch. He then felt a barrage of punches colliding with his torso and face, disorienting him slightly, he then felt a hot searing pain in his abdomen and noticed a bluish white blade protruding out of the armored foe's fist and into his abdomen. He could feel some of his tertiary organs cooking as they sizzled against the hot blade.

Enraged , Skarr fired up the eezo modules throughout his nervous system and gathered biotic energy into his fist and punched his assailant with the full force of a Krogan berserker. The armored being was sent sailing in the air and eventually fell back down to the ground by the inescapable pull of gravity, a cloud of dust accentuating his impact. Skarr smirked, confident he had finally bested this monster. His sense of satisfaction was short lived however, as the armored being slowly, but steadily rose from the ground, the blue light flickering on and off around him. A static gold aura enveloped him as well, puzzling Skarr, as well as eliciting fear for the first time in his life as he could feel the menacing glare of the red visor bearing down on him.

Feeling that his nervous system only had one more shot before he would need several moments to cool down, Skarr scanned his surroundings for a way to win this fight, or barring that, survive to reengage this monster. His eventually fell onto the heavily damaged armored personnel carrier. For a second time, he fired up the eezo nodules throughout his body. In an instant his vision blurred as his body was enveloped with dark energy and his body began accelerating toward its target.

* * *

 _First Lieutenant Kahlee Sanders_

 _Systems Alliance R &D Division_

* * *

Kahlee felt elation and relief as the Alliance frigate had come bearing down on the Blue Suns as it entered the atmosphere. As the GARDIAN laser batteries annihilated the flanking rover, the surviving Marines around her cheered as the cavalry had arrived to provide much needed air support. As she gazed at the majestic sight of the warship circling around their position in a wide arc to make a pass at the remaining Blue Suns, Kahlee heard a Marine speak up to break the silence.

"Hey, the mercs have stopped firing at us." He stated.

The others in the party stopped and noticed the lack of puffs of dust that normally accompanied impacting rounds. This development lead to a general sense of confusion as the chatter of sustained gunfire could be heard on the other side of their overturned APC.

"They're not shooting at the _Iwo Jima_ either." The fireteam leader stated as well.

Before any of the Alliance members could offer a hypothesis a loud impact could be heard on the other side of the APC, and in a split second an ominous shadow enveloped them. Its source, an armored personnel carrier flipping and sailing through the air as if was made of Styrofoam. Within the blink of an eye, said vehicle impacted the possessive earth as gravity's tendrils tugged it downwards and kicked up a large cloud of dust at its point of impact.

Before anyone in her party could react, Kahlee felt herself being lifted at her waist by a powerful band of muscle and bone enveloped in armor. She looked up to see the menacing, growling visage of a Krogan fill up her vision. A gruff voice boomed in her ears. "Lower your weapons! Throw them on the ground and the female stays unharmed!"

To her dismay, the Alliance Marines deposit their rifles at their feet, trying to appease the angry Krogan that held their charge within its deadly grasp. However, what the alien said next surprised everyone within the vicinity, particularly the one being held hostage, Kahlee.

"I said lower your weapons!" Skarr yelled.

Kahlee thought she heard fear mixed in with the Krogan's anger laced voice, but she was not completely certain. However, what piqued her curiosity more was to whom the demands were directed towards if not the Alliance Marines. She scanned the area that Skarr was facing and, to her astonishment, was greeted with the sight of one of the Blue Suns' rovers lying in a heap of smoking, burned wreckage around 50 meters away. The view was also accompanied by the view of several dead bodies in various levels of evisceration, combustion and pulped flesh. Kahlee slowly absorbed the sight before her, as her astonishment and bewilderment grew greater by the second and the extent of the carnage slowly began to dawn upon her.

However, what surprised her most were the pair of darkly armored humanoids standing tall amongst the destruction. She could only describe them as heavily armored, menacing humanoids that radiated a powerful aura. Kahlee then noticed that the two figures held two long rifles in her direction. _Hope they're pointed at the Krogan._

"I am going to leave with the female! Make a move and she dies!" The Krogan bellowed, realizing that the two foes would not yield to his demands.

She didn't feel comfortable meeting this Krogan again, but Kahlee felt that she was definitely not expendable, as the Krogan was making a great effort to extract her. Her train of thought was interrupted abruptly by the Krogan's voice. "No you idiots just meet me with the rover and we'll get out of here. Those monsters will kill you before you can fire off a shot with the cannon." His actions left her mildly surprised, even more so when she considered the fact that two people had driven the mercenaries into this tight of a corner.

Slowly, but steadily, the Krogan carried her towards the rover that was making its way to them, all weapons on the vehicle trained on the two mysterious figures flanking them some 50 odd meters away on each side.

A batarian cried out in a startled voice, "Shit! Where did they go?"

Having paid attention to the Rover advancing towards her and the Krogan, Kahlee was unable to see how the two enigmas managed to disappear. She scanned the area, unable to find them. She could feel the Krogan's arm tightening around her waist. She held her breath, counting her heartbeats, anticipating something, anything to get her out of her present predicament.

However, before she knew it, she was in the bed of the rover and restraints were put on her wrists and ankles to prevent any escape attempts on her part. As she began to lose all hope, she heard the startled cries of a surprised Batarian behind her. Curious, she craned her neck to the front of the rover to see what was going on. Her curiosity was sated with the view of a dark, menacing figure slicing through the neck of an unfortunate mercenary. The tool used to accomplish such a feat thrummed with energy as the white hot blade of plasma protruded from the enigma's forearm.

It was at that instant that she felt her body lurch forward, "Drive you idiot!" one of the Batarians cried out in sheer terror. As the vehicle sprung into motion, the humanoid wraith turned its helmet towards her and gave a slight nod, before jumping from the accelerating vehicle. Although she wasn't sure, she could have sworn that her new 'friend' placed an object onto the vehicle's frame. However, upon inspection, there was no discernible abnormality, leading Kahlee to question what she had seen.

As she saw the Marines and the _Iwo Jima_ growing smaller in the distance, her thoughts were filled with intrigue and confusion, as well as a slight bit of hope mixed in there.

 _Indris System – Camala – The Refinery_

 _Staff Lieutenant David Anderson_

 _Systems Alliance Navy_

 _26 June 2165 - 0045_

* * *

Anderson made his way silently through the refinery, taking care not to draw attention from the refinery workers. As he made his way down the halls, none of the employees paid him any attention as he was desperately searching for Kahlee. However, within his thoughts he mulled over the Spectre's attitude just before he had entered the refinery. However, remembering Saren's leak of Sander's position brought forth anger to the forefront of his mind, as the report from the _Iwo Jima_ stated that the Blue Suns would most likely have downed their ship with the mass accelerator cannon they had brought in their rovers.

However, what intrigued him the most about their report, was that the mercenaries were stopped cold in their assault by two skilled individuals armored in black with menacing red visors. Unfortunately the two of them had disappeared before the Alliance could link up with them and ask questions, as well as unofficially thank them for the assist. _Is there a third party at work here on Camala? Is Qian's research this important?_

Anderson shook his head, clearing his thoughts and concentrating on the task of finding and rescuing Kahlee. He passed several more employees as he made his way up and down the halls, but none of them paid him any attention, either. He was beginning to grow frustrated—he didn't have time to search the entire facility. He'd assumed they'd be keeping Kahlee on the lower floors, but he was still going to need some luck if he wanted to locate her in time. And then he saw it: a sign saying "No Admittance" beside a stairwell leading down to what he remembered from the blueprints was a small equipment storage room. The sign was so clean it almost sparkled; obviously it had only been placed there in the last few days.

He carefully made his way down the stairs, though his hurried footsteps belied his cautious approach. When he reached the bottom of the stairwell, he saw two Batarians sitting in chairs without armor and their weapons laying against the wall beside them. At first he believed that the guards were asleep, however the cauterized slashes across their throats corrected his initial assumption. His pulse quickening, Anderson removed the bundled assault rifle from his clothing and removed the coveralls. He quickly unwrapped the rifle and unfolded it, making ready to breach the room. Taking a few slow breaths to prepare himself and steady his heartbeat, he then kicked the door wide open and entered the room, rifle shouldered and at the ready.

Where he was expecting a room full of hostiles, he found only dead, unarmored batarians lying with cauterized slash and stab wounds, as well as necks and limbs jutting at unnatural angles. However, his focus was quickly averted from the carnage to two beings grappling with each other. One was clearly a Krogan, but the other was humanoid clothed in black arm-.

Making a snap decision, Anderson drew a bead on the Krogan's head and squeezed the trigger, releasing a burst of sand grain sized particles at many times the speed of sound. The projectiles met their target, but only managed to deeply embed themselves into the Krogan's headplate, unable to fully penetrate and enter the foe's gray matter.

However, the burst of assault rifle fire served its purpose and momentarily distracted the Krogan as he tried to discern where the incoming fire was originating from. Gaining a slight window of opportunity in the stalemate, the humanoid figure slammed his right foot into the left knee of the Krogan causing his hulking mass to buckle to the left. The armored figure then swept its left elbow across the Krogan's face eliciting a meaty thud and crunch as flesh and bone were pulverized by the blow. Before the Krogan could respond, the enigmatic figure grabbed the Krogan's head and thrust it downward onto its upswinging knee, adding further damage to the already injured face of the Krogan. The Krogan sat on one knee, disoriented, trying desperately to recover its senses. Unfortunately for him, his foe did not relent and slammed a bladed hand underneath his headplate, and before he could register the horror pervading his mind, his foe tore off the bony crest with a mighty tug, exposing the bare skull of the Krogan. The Krogan writhed in further agony, humiliation and terror, as its most prized possession was torn from his head. Obviously taking no joy in its actions, the victorious fighter pointed what appeared to be a handgun at the bare skull of his opponent and a subsequently large boom resounded off of the metal walls of the room. The Krogan's cries of agony immediately grew silent, his body twitching as his nervous system shed its last vestiges of life.

Anderson stood there, admiring the spectacle with a sense of awe and wonderment, taking in the extraordinary performance of power and martial prowess. His stupor was interrupted however, as the figure tossed an object towards him after rifling through the Krogan's body. Anderson deftly caught it and examined the object in his hand to find that it was a key. He looked up to see the figure nodding towards a door on the other side of the room.

"Lieutenant Sanders is behind that door, alive. Take her and leave the facility." A distinctly deep male voice stated.

Several questions began to flood Anderson's mind, however one thing was for certain, the individual before him was human. "Are you Alliance?" He asked.

"No, but I am a friendly. Now hurry and extract the Lieutenant to safety." He stated, his voice more urgent in tone. As Anderson somewhat warily made his way towards the door, he passed his new tentative ally and as he had his back to him, he spoke up once more. "Keep this meeting a secret, leave it out of your report if you know what's good for you."

Anderson wheeled around to confront the man, but he was greeted with an empty room, save for all the dead bodies. He then moved towards the door and quickly unlocked it, to see a relatively unharmed Kahlee Sanders sitting there in restraints. "Kahlee!" He exclaimed.

"David!" She replied happily. Anderson kneeled down and hurriedly removed the restraints on her wrists and ankles, finalizing her freedom from her uncomfortable detainment. As they moved to exit the room, Kahlee gazed at the carnage surrounding them. "Did you do all of this?"

Anderson shook his head, "No, it wasn't me." Before he could continue, several dull explosions went off around the facility, their shockwaves reverberating off the walls and floor of this room as well as the whole facility. Several blaring alarms simultaneously went off signaling to all occupants of the refinery to evacuate. "Come on, let's get out of here." Anderson beckoned, concentrating solely on evacuating before Saren blew up the facility.

 _Christopher Zheng_

 _Redacted_

 _26 June 2165 – 0035_

* * *

I placed the final charge on the support beam indicated on my head. The beam is in the middle of a 2x2 grid of large generators that power the majority of the facility. This explosive charge is one of several placed throughout the facility to give the illusion of a catastrophic failure. I check my HUD and ensure that the general evacuation alarm is slaved to my suits systems, and I would be able to activate it with my neural uplink. I activate my comms and contact Worm. "Hey Worm, have you made contact with Anderson yet?"

" _ **Can't… talk… wrestling… Krogan!"**_ He grunted in response. _**"Talk… later."**_ His comm channel died shortly after. I return to my task and finish setting up my explosive charge. As I finalize the setup for the detonator on the charge and set it to remote activation I hear a voice behind me.

"So, I'm somewhat surprised that demolishing the refinery wasn't just my idea." I wheel around to see an armored Turian walking through the doorway 30 meters from me. "Though, judging by the placement of your charge, your objective isn't the complete destruction of this facility." He mused.

"Saren Arterius." I state, my voice laced with contempt and disdain. I unclip my MA5D assault rifle from my back and check to make sure that the stabilization jets are activated on the end of the barrel and that the kinetic bolt mod is online.

"I see that my reputation precedes me. Though I am at a loss, since I have no idea who _you_ are?" His eyes scanned me from head to toe. "Though judging by your voice, and build, you must be a _human_ male." This time his voice was laced with contempt and disdain as he stressed the word, _human._ "Are you here for Qian's research as well? Or did someone hire you to eliminate Edan?"

I remain silent and send out an invisible pulse of energy from my helmet, my HUD tagging his silhouette in my Promethean vision. Saren's barrier flares slightly as the dark energy encounters the pulse of radiation, though whether he notices or not, I am unable to tell as he continues speaking.

"Your performance with your partner earlier was admirable. A brilliant display of tactical prowess, as well as sheer domineering power. If you were a Turian, I'd recommend the two of you for Spectre training." He then leveled his assault rifle at me, with me returning the gesture. "But unfortunately for the both of us, you're _human_. And you're between me and my mission objective, so you need to die."

I squeeze the trigger on my assault rifle and send a hail of orange projectiles towards the Turian Spectre, all of them absorbed by his powerful biotic barrier. My shields absorb the impacts of Saren's rifle, leaving the Energy shield underneath untouched. I activate the active camouflage suite on my armor and dissolve into my surroundings. I leap to the left behind a generator, putting a barrier between the two of us and breaking any chance of his having a line of sight towards me. His silhouette is still highlighted in my HUD however, so the advantage so far is in my favor. I see him sweeping around the room with his rifle, trying to find me. As I prepare to round the corner of the generator, I see the Turian turn his body towards me arm swinging underhanded to release an object towards my position.

I quickly activate my maneuvering thrusters and leap back several meters from the object, where it immediately explodes into a hail of deadly shrapnel upon impact. Fortunately the shrapnel bounces harmlessly off of my energy shields, leaving ripples of gold where they impact and get vaporized.

"You're good human, but your actions show the predictability of a soldier. Tell me, are you an Alliance Black Ops project? If so, why are you fighting me? We're on the same side after all." Saren sarcastically jeered.

I ignore him and silently flank to his rear and draw a bead on his exposed back. I squeeze the trigger and let loose a burst of automatic hardlight reinforced rounds at my target. A few manage to hit his barrier, but Saren dodges before the full brunt of automatic fire reaches him.

I see his silhouette up against the generator between us and hear his voice call out. "I've seen the way you fight, you could have killed me a dozen times over if you'd closed the distance. Seeing as I'm still breathing, killing me appears to not be your goal." A wave of dark energy roils towards my position and I dodge by leaping to the right and activating my thrusters in mid-air. I barely manage to dodge his biotic wave. "I would say that you're working with Edan to let him escape, if I hadn't seen you kill all of his men. So what is it _human?_ What is your real goal?"

My comms beep to life as Worm hails me. _**"Made contact with Anderson, he's got Sanders. Go ahead and blow the charges and exfil."**_

I activate my neural implant and set off the explosives that I'd scattered throughout the facility. Several dull thumps could be felt as controlled explosives released shockwaves throughout the refinery's interior. I then activate the general evacuation alarm, despite the little risk of a catastrophic failure.

I turn on my heels and move to extricate myself from the facility. I activate my external speakers, "That's something you'll never know, _Spectre_."

 _Epsilon Eridani System – Reach – Redacted_

 _Max Hill_

 _Redacted_

 _5 July 2165 - 0536_

* * *

Max sat at a table, eating his apple and perusing a data pad. A steaming mug of black coffee sat within arm's reach. He noticed movement in his peripherals and glanced up to see Chris coming his way. "Mornin" he said.

Chris grunted in acknowledgement and poured himself a cup of coffee and added a pinch of salt to it. He sat across from Max and began sipping the hot brew. The pair sat in silence for a few minutes until Chris spoke up, "So, how fucked up is the galaxy today Max?" he asked.

"Same old, same old. You know the deal, same shit different day." He replied.

"Shadow Broker notice the bug on his comms satellite yet?" Chris inquired.

"If he did, he's feeding us some very good false intel, but Forthencho told me it wasn't very likely. He's already confirmed most of it with his tap in the regular Extranet and the Salarian Union's comm buoys." Max answered.

"Anything worth noting pop up?"

"Marcus Shepard enlisted in the Alliance Marines yesterday, he should be shipping out to Boot Camp within the week. Anderson got denied entry into the Spectres, and our presence as well as the whole mission got swept under the rug. His official report fails to mention us, but Saren described his encounter with you in vivid detail, saying that a 'dangerous group of humans were running amok in the galaxy and a threat t the Citadel' and that 'the Alliance undoubtedly had some hand in their creation, sanctioned or not.'" Max took a sip of his coffee. "Of course, Goyle denied everything dealing with us, and the Council believed her. Not much of a political shit storm either since the _Iwo Jima_ got out unscathed with only one dead Marine and the refinery will be up and running within the week. Only a few dead civilians thanks to Saren, but we've managed to stop most of his slaughter."

Chris nodded, "Job well done, then. Pull anything from Qian's notes?"

He shook his head, "A lot of it is just gibberish, and most of it is stuff that we already know and deals with Sovereign and the Reapers. Not much we can use on how to counteract indoctrination, unfortunately." He took a sip of his coffee and looked back at his datapad. Max then grimaced, "And it looks like Cerberus has made a move. They've started up the Teltin facility on Pragia, and I'm sure they're going to abduct Jack as well."

Chris got up and picked a banana off of the counter, peeling it as he walked back to his seat across from. His facial features screwed up in contemplation before responding, "Tell Forthencho to keep an eye on that. Tell us if anything changes in that hellhole."

"Already done." He replied. "So, how was the fight with Saren?"

"He's definitely skilled, I'll give him that. If I was trying to kill him, I'm pretty confident I could have won, but since I was only delaying him until you got Anderson and Sanders squared away, I can only speculate. He knows we're human though." Chris shrugged. "How was your second fight with the Krogan?"

"He's fucking tough, that's for sure. If Anderson hadn't given me an opening, I might have been in a little bit of trouble there," He chuckled, "But I would have beat him eventually."

"So I guess we're agreed that biotic Krogan are priority targets then huh?" Chris asked.

"And biotic, rogue Spectres." Max added. He put down his datapad and gave himself a good stretch, giving a pleased groan in the process. "Well brother, looks like the galaxy has gone relatively quiet, guess we're just going to go dark for awhile."

The two of them sat there for a few minutes, draining away their cups of coffee. When they were done, they set their cups on the conveyer belt for the automatic dish washer and the trash they had in the trash compacter. The pair of friends headed off deeper into the Forerunner facility, a busy day of training and planning ahead of them.

 _Kahje – Redacted_

 _Irikah Krios_

 _Medical Researcher - Immunologist_

 _26 November 2168 – 1600_

* * *

" _ **Siha, I can't be home for long, I got a job offer in the Verge."**_

"You are on the ship to Kahje, correct?" Irikah insisted.

The person on the other side of the voice call sighed, _**"Yes siha, I should be home in an hour or two."**_

"Good, and besides, a visit home would do all of us good. The nights have been rather lonely." She responded.

Her husband lightly smiled _**"How is our son?"**_

"He misses his father." Irikah replied, playfully frowning. "I'll bring him over, he's just playing with his toys."

" _ **Let him play siha, I'll be home soon enough."**_ Thane replied.

Irikah pouted, "Is that how a father responds when presented with the chance to speak to his child? You've been away for weeks Thane, your son deserves to hear your voice." Before her husband could offer a rebuttal, she rose from her seat, only to freeze as she felt a tingling sensation on the back of her neck, sensing something was awry. "Kolyat, come here." She called out, trying to sound normal and unperturbed, though she was unable to fool the individual on the other side of the call.

" _ **Siha, what's wrong?"**_ He questioned concernedly.

Irikah ignored him and gathered up the young Kolyat and scooped him in her arms. "Kolyat, I want you to go hide and don't come out unless I say so, okay?" Her son nodded and ran off when she set her down. She turned back to the vid screen to gaze at her beloved.

" _ **Siha…"**_

"Thane, I think there's an intruder. I think he's armed. No matter what happens, I love you Thane." Before he could respond, Irikah cut the connection and went to the kitchen to grab a knife, ready to confront the individuals who threatened her home and son.

* * *

 **Author's Note**

Alright, so the first thing Chris and Max have done is take part in the later events of Mass Effect Revelation. For those of you that don't know, that's the novel that details Anderson's first encounter with Saren and his trial mission to be inducted into the Spectres, which as we all know goes horribly in canon. Seeing as it is early in the timeline, very little has changed and not much deviation has occurred… yet.

Hope yall are looking forward to the next chapter, and forgive me about the dialogue between the Krios family, as I'm not really sure how drell talk to each other, or their culture other than a few wiki entries. If anyone is willing to give me a few pointers, leave a review or PM me, I'd be more than willing to take the advice. Also, I enjoy hearing yall's feedback even if it's just something saying nice chapter, as it motivates me to keep writing. Have a nice day yall, and be safe out there.

PS: The line break function in the editor is not working like I want it to, so forgive me for the inconsistent formatting.


	4. Chapter 3 - The Assassin's Family

Chapter 3 – The Assassin's Family

* * *

 _Kahje – Redacted_

 _Christopher Zheng_

 _Redacted_

 _26 November 2168 – 1545_

* * *

The heavens wept in the darkness, releasing a torrential downpour of fat, warm drops of liquid. The occasional flash of lightning and subsequent clap of thunder interrupted the constant sound of rain hitting the tropical flora. I lay down amongst the dense undergrowth, lying down atop a hill just inside of the tree line. Even without my active camo suite running, my hide would be tough to spot even to the most experienced of eyes. I check to make sure the Type 27 Special Applications Sniper Rifle is squared away and that the optic is slaved to my HUD. The plasma battery's charge shows full and I resume to scanning the open field in front of me, where, approximately 500 meters southeast from me, a single, lonely house sits surrounded by dense, thriving and chaotic plant life. However, there is sizeable field with rows of ordered shoulder high produce to the south of the simple house, which is where I focus my attention towards. I lie there, waiting for my prey to enter my sights. I activate my comms after a few minutes of silence. "Worm, give me a sitrep."

" _ **Dumb fucks don't even know I'm tailing them."**_ He replied.

"Can I get a headcount?" I ask.

" _ **Five Tangos, four Batarians in the rear and a Human on point. They're pretty sloppy Mac."**_ Max answered with disgust and contempt coloring his voice. _**"We should be exiting the tree line from the south. Pulsing the targets."**_

I swing the rifle over to the right where I see five red silhouettes exiting the tree line 100 meters south of the Krios residence and 650 meters southeast of my position.. One lone blue silhouette is following close behind them, his prey none the wiser to his presence. I kept the lead target in my line of sight as Worm stalked the rest of the targets. When they were within fifty meters of the house and had entered the rows of crops, I centered my crosshairs on the rearmost hostile. I then shift my crosshairs over each of the four Batarians, practicing the movement and imagining a squeeze of the trigger for each one. I begin to slow my heart beat, taking deep controlled intakes of breath and drawing out my exhales. My thoughts empty as I focus on the contact my finger makes with the trigger and the sway of the crosshairs as I breathe normally. I do this all while practicing my transition between targets, aiming at center of mass, on their upper left pectorals.

" _ **Point man is at the door, I'll approach on your shot."**_ I flash my acknowledgement light twice, telling him I heard his message.

I take one last breath and exhale slowly. As my lungs empty themselves of air, I can feel the rhythmic thump of my heartbeat. I focus all of my attention on the rearmost Batarian. I wait, feeling my heartbeat's rhythm. As I feel a thud of rushing blood in my ears, I squeeze the trigger, sending a packet of ionized particles towards my prey at the speed of light. Before the Batarian even realizes he's been hit, I shift my crosshairs onto the next victim and immediately squeeze the trigger. As the first target clutches at his chest, his internal organs in his chest flash fried by the beam of energized particles, I shift my aim to the third Batarian and squeeze the trigger a third time. The fourth notices something is amiss, but his realization comes too little too late as a beam of ionized particles cooks his lungs and heart. The first body finally hits the ground, the sound of his fall masked by the torrential rains. None of my targets give a cry of alarm, as the energized stream of particles burned out their lungs, petrifying them as their proteins denatured and their organs stiffened. The silent report of my rifle and the inability of the Batarian corpses to cry out leave the sole human unaware of the carnage behind him, leaving him oblivious as he hungrily heads to the front door. His figure is obscured by the building, but my task is done as I see the blue silhouette flash across my scope towards the Krios dwelling. I fill my lungs up with air again, letting the rifle vent the heat it had accumulated over the four shots.

"He's all yours buddy, try to keep him breathing if you can." I mutter to myself. I delink the optic from my HUD and keep an eye over the area, just in case the slavers' friends decide to show up. I go ahead and pop a stim, ready for the long night ahead.

* * *

 _Max Hill_

 _Redacted_

* * *

He crept silently amongst the rows of green plants, the darkness and his active camo shielding his form from any prying eyes, and the constant downpour masking any sounds he made from attentive ears. Luckily his prey held neither of those traits, making his task of stalking them much easier. His lead target closed the gap to the lone house ahead, hungrily seeking the innocent within.

Max whispered into his helmet mic. "Point man is at the door. I'll approach on your shot." Two flashes of green light appear on Chris's name in his HUD, signifying that he had received the message.

The seconds tick by agonizingly slowly, all while the hitman is making entry into the Krios residence. A beam of bright blue flashes across his field of view, piercing through the upper left pectoral of the Batarian and exiting out of his lower back. Max tensed up the legs in his muscles as the second beam of ionized plasma claimed its victim. The edges of his vision blurred as his legs accelerated him to 80 kph, his focus entirely upon the human male at the house in front of him. On the edge of his vision a third lance of plasma snuffed a Batarian's miserable life. By the time the fourth Batarian had fallen, Max was already two steps from the front door, where the Human stood with an archaic metal blade in his left hand.

"I'm going to enjoy this." He said menacingly, glee coloring his brash voice. As he stepped further into the home and towards the defiant yet quivering drell woman inside, Max tackled the hitman from behind and brought him to the floor. He deactivated his active camo, and clamped down on his opponents left wrist and squeezed. The radius and ulna in his left arm were pulverized as the supersoldier's grip crushed his relatively fragile bones. The man gave a cry of alarm and shock, unable to comprehend what had just occurred in the split second prior. His eyes rolled back in his head as the pain overwhelmed his senses and knocked him unconscious.

Satisfied, Max activated his plasma dagger and sliced through his target's Achilles tendon on both legs, cartilage and flesh sizzling as the wound was cauterized immediately. He grabbed a pair of restraints off of his armor's belt and handcuffed the hitman's wrists together. He turned towards the drell woman to his right, "Ma'am, mind if I borrow a chair?" She absently nodded, unsure what to make of this newcomer. Deciding to ignore her for now, Max picked up the limp body of the unconscious male and unceremoniously dumped him in the chair.

"Wh-Who are you?" The Drell woman asked.

Max turned to her and gave a slight bow of his head, "Name's Max Hill ma'am. I'm just someone looking to offer a business proposition to your husband, once he gets here."

"So, you're not with this man? Never mind, of course you're not, but why is _he_ here?" She asked.

"I won't lie to you ma'am, your husband got sloppy, his face got captured by a surveillance camera. And then a Batarian slave ring that he had hit, paid for his info from the Shadow Broker." Max replied. He took out a stim pack and adjusted the dosage for the weight of the man in front of him. "They were too afraid of your husband, so they came after you while he was away on a job."

"H-How do you know all this?" Irikah inquired. Her voice calming as the adrenaline wore off.

"The Shadow Broker's networks aren't as secure as he'd like to believe they are. Got the same info they did, but we just happened to get here faster than the Batarians is all." He injected the stim into the human male in front of him. His eyelids flickered as the drugs began circulating in his system. "Lucky for us they hired this amateur, Stiv Kay, since they figured eliminating you would be cake walk. Left most of their crew over by the space port as well."

"Are we still in danger?" She asked concernedly, though fear appeared to not be in her voice any longer.

"For the time being?" Max took a second to contemplate his answer. "No, not for a while, but I'm sure their friends will come to recon if these guys don't establish radio contact."

"There were more of them?" She inquired.

"Four more, all Batarians, but they're dead, so not a threat any longer. And if more of them decide to show up, my partner is keeping an eye on the area to the Northwest, so we shouldn't have any surprises." He answered.

Irikah breathed a sigh of relief and bowed in gratitiude. "Thank you Mr. Hill, if you hadn't arrived, I'm not sure if I would have lasted long enough for Thane to get here."

"No problem, ma'am. Happy to help."

"Mr. Hill?" She gave a slight pause. "My husband won't be here for another hour yet. Would you like something to drink in the meantime?"

"A cup of coffee would be nice."

 _Kahje – Redacted_

 _Thane Krios_

 _Freelance Assassin_

 _26 November 2168 – 1715_

He rushed through the dense underbrush of th

* * *

e forest, taking the familiar path towards the home he had made for himself with the one he held dear. His thoughts were in turmoil, as his lungs burned with each exhale and his legs screamed in protest as the adrenaline coursed through his veins. He weaved in and out of the pillars of bark and green as the sun retired to its slumber. His pupils dilated to compensate for the lower levels of light. He said a mental prayer as he neared home. _Arashu, Goddess of Motherhood and Protection, hide Kolyat from the wicked, and shield Irikah from those who wish to do me harm._

As he cleared the forest and exited the tree line, he was greeted with the sight of his home, sitting lonely amid a field of greenery. He felt a slight prick in his neck, his instincts telling him that he was being watched. However, as he was not under fire at the moment, Thane focused solely on reaching his isolated household, his thoughts filled with only concern for his family's safety. As he grew closer to his home, the absence of any out of place commotion gave him caution. He slowed his sprint down to a trot and drew his handgun, preparing himself for what horrors could have occurred in his residence. As he slowed his trot down to a controlled walk and held his pistol at a low ready, he spotted a corpse in his path, a Batarian one. As he stooped down to quickly inspect it, he noticed that the body only had tiny holes in the front and back of its torso, with no mushrooming indicating an exit with conventional mass accelerator rounds. The tinge of burnt flesh wafting into his nostrils intrigued him, but he pushed aside his curiosity and advanced towards his home.

His heartbeat quickened as he neared the front door and anxiety permeated throughout his entire being. As he drew closer, he could hear… voices… they were calm? He leveled his handgun at the door and called out, "Irikah! Kolyat!" as he crept forward, ready to fight his way to his family inside.

"Thane?! We're all okay!" Thane breathed a mental sigh of relief. "Come inside, there's someone who wants to meet you."

Intrigued and his curiosity piqued, Thane crossed the threshold of his front door and entered the kitchen to find the shattered remains of what once was a chair. However, what garnered his attention immediately was the heavily armored individual sitting at his kitchen table, playing with his son. His helmet was laid down in front of him on the table, revealing a distinctly human face, with white tattoo markings on his face indicative of some Turian clan markings. The strange human diverted his attention from Kolyat, who turned to see who had entered. His son looked to see what had drawn his new friend's attention, and a smile lit up his innocent face as he realized who had arrived.

"Father! Welcome home!" Kolyat cried as he flung himself towards Thane for a hug. He returned the gesture, relieved to see that his son was safe and unharmed.

"Hello, Kolyat." He looked up to see his wife leaning against the counter, her arms crossed. Concern clouded her brow as her inquisitive mind displayed her thoughts in her eyes. The human stranger then chose that moment to speak up, as he stood up from his chair at the table and placed his helmet back on his head.

"Mr. Krios." He said as he bowed his head in his direction. "Max Hill. Pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine." He paused taking stock of his surroundings discreetly, checking for any signs of danger. He found nothing of consequence, save for the bound, unconscious human in the corner. Satisfied, he continued addressing the human in front of him. "I believe I saw your handiwork on my way inside."

He shook his head, chuckling. "Can't take credit for that. My partner was the one who took those killshots." He jerked his thumb over to the unconscious human. "Ugly over there was my only target."

"Who are these men?" Thane inquired.

"The dead Batarians were a part of a slave ring, whose leader you eliminated in one of your jobs. The human was a hitman they hired to target your family." Max replied.

Flabbergasted, Thane was taken aback for a split second before he responded. His wife didn't notice, but whether Max did or not could not be discerned from his stilled facial features. "How did they find out about me?" He asked, more to himself than to Hill.

"They paid the Shadow Broker for information about your identity. I won't lie to you Mr. Krios. You either got sloppy, complacent, or both and your face got caught by one of the surveillance cameras on a hit. You've been burned." Max answered. "If my partner and I hadn't made it in time, well, your wife nor your son would likely not have been able to greet you just now."

Thane bowed, his son still clinging to his waist. "I thank you for saving my family. But may I ask, how did you find out about the kill order on my family?"

"The Shadow Broker's networks aren't as secure as everyone in the galaxy would like to believe. Or anyone else's networks for that matter. Once your family's location popped up on the Shadow Broker's network, my partner and I came here to intercept."

Puzzled, Thane asked another question. "Forgive me if sound ungrateful, but why go so far to help my family? I don't recall leaving anyone indebted to me, insofar as to have them risk their lives to save my wife and son."

"It is true, we've never crossed paths before, but the two of us wanted to recruit you to our team." He replied.

Thane raised his brow, "If you needed me for a job, then contacting an information broker would have been sufficient to elicit my services."

The man shook his head, "We're not here for just you," He turned to Irikah. "We're here to recruit your wife as well."

Until this point, Irikah had been standing silently off to the side, intently listening to the conversation. Now, surprise riddled her reptilian features, mirroring Thane's own countenance. "Me? But I've got no combat experience. I've never even shot a gun before in my life."

"Curious, what use could you have for an assassin and a medical researcher that specializes in xeno-immunology?" Thane wondered aloud.

"For your wife, we'd be asking her to continue her same line of work, except her research would be focused on a different race than the Hanar." Max then turned back to Thane, "As for you, we need you more for your biotics than your skills as an assassin, but it wouldn't hurt to draw from your skillset once in a while."

"My biotics? I am proficient in using them, but the average Asari is more competent in their use than I. My combat ability originates from my other skills." Thane replied.

The human held up his hand, "Sorry, I forgot to clarify, we want you mainly as an instructor, not as a combatant."

"Instructor? I was unaware that the Alliance was looking for another biotics instructor for their military." Thane mused, inferring that the Alliance was the only feasible human organization with access to the small pool of biotic children. His assumption was quickly dispelled, however.

Max chuckled, "We're not Alliance, but our interests line up with theirs for the most part. We're a clandestine, private outfit."

"Pardon me, but I am still skeptical. Why go so far to recruit a potential employee? Surely you have other candidates in mind?" Thane asked somewhat apprehensively.

Max shook his head, "You'd be a team member and there weren't any other candidates. You and your wife were the only ones that we wanted on the team." He replied.

Thane glanced at his wife and the two shared a silent conversation as they gazed into each other's eyes. Irikah replied for the both of them, "I don't mean to be ungrateful, but even though you saved mine and Kolyat's lives, we hardly know you. Can you ensure the safety of our son?"

"We're prepared to relocate the three of you to our base of operations. Not even the Shadow Broker will know where you are, so your family will be safe, I promise you."

"Will we be prisoners under your care? Isolated from the galaxy?" Irikah continued.

"No, you'll be free to part ways with us whenever you wish, and you'll be allowed to visit Citadel space whenever you feel the need to. Your family will also be taken care of financially while you're with us, so if you decide to leave, you won't be out on the street with nothing."

Irikah sighed, relief alleviating some of the tension in her facial features. "I suppose it couldn't hurt to try, though we have nothing to go on except your word. But… you did save our lives after all, so at the very least we are indebted to you. What exactly is it that you need a medical researcher and a biotic assassin for anyways?"

"I won't lie to either of you. There's a war coming on the horizon. And the galaxy is woefully unprepared for it. The two of us are hoping to change that as much as we can on our own. Your family happens to be a part of our plan, and an integral one. I hope you're willing to give us a chance and take a leap of faith." As he finished speaking, he bowed his head in humility.

"You saved my family, and that leaves me forever in your debt. If working with you helps repay you for letting me hear the laughing voices of my wife and son, then consider me yours." Thane bowed in respectful gratitude. "And if your cause is as noble as you say, then I would be honored to aid you."

"And that goes for me as well." Irikah added, before continuing. "But you said Thane would be a biotic instructor. How many pupils will he be taking under him?" She asked.

"Just one, ma'am. And we'll be going to pick her up shortly." Max retrieved a purple device from his belt and pressed his thumb on a button in its center. "But first," he tossed it into the center of the room, where a shimmering shield of blue light grew from the device in a concave shape. "we've got some uninvited guests on their way here." He withdrew a long, blue and gray weapon from his back with his right hand, sleek organic lines populated the length of the rifle, giving it an aquatic aura. "You might want to hide behind this with your son ma'am, while your husband and I greet this guy's employers." He said as he scooped up the unconscious human's form in his left arm.

* * *

 _Kahje – Redacted_

 _Brelle Kargark_

 _Batarian Slaver_

 _26 November 2168 – 1750_

* * *

He felt the pit of his stomach bottom out as the air car descended towards the lush field below. He looked out the window to see the lone house standing in the middle of the greenery. Brelle felt a slight thud as the air car touched down and palmed the door release, lifting the canopy over his head and the three others in the vehicle. He swung himself up and over the lip of the car and touched his boots onto the soft layer of greenery.

"You two stay by the car, you follow me." He said to the other passengers in the well as the driver. He unclipped the assault rifle from his back and released it from its collapsed form, readying it for any unforeseen threats. He glanced around to spot the five other cars touching down in a loose semicircle around the house to their front. A pair of Batarians stood guard on each vehicle, establishing a base of fire as well as ensuring nobody escaped out the back by staying out of sight of the assaulting party.

Brelle gave a few brief hand signals and 6 pairs of Batarians cautiously advanced forwards, weapons held at the low ready position, and their eyes scanning for threats. As they closed in on the house, Brelle spotted a familiar body lying in the rows of chest high flora. He stooped down and inspected the body, and to his dismay saw the face of one of his dear friends, forever petrified in death. He put his fingers to the four eyes that were wide open, frozen in time by the stillness of death. "Damn it." He cursed as he closed his friend's eyelids, bringing some measure of peace to the corpse. He noticed the odd burn marks around the entry and exit wounds in his friend's chest, and wondered what could have caused it. However, his musings were quickly disrupted.

"Kargark! We've got one alive over here! It's the human!" Brelle heard a groan of pain over to his left and stood up to go over and inspect the area. As he strode towards pair of Batarians that had called out to him, he noticed one of them bend down towards the wounded man, medigel at the ready. Unfortunately, Brelle did not have a line of sight on the human, so he could assess the damage. Before he could make his way over, a brilliant blue flash burned into his retinas, temporarily blinding his four eyes. He blinked to regain his vision, and was greeted with the sight of one of the Batarian's bodies sailing through the air, his lower body missing, and the remaining portion of his body burned beyond recognition. The second one was nowhere to be found, a blackened crater of mirrored glass standing as the only evidence of where he stood.

As Brelle struggled to collect his thoughts, several screams to his left further interrupted his train of thought. He glanced over to see what the commotion was about only to see a series of bright green flashes where the air cars had been. He could see several bodies flying through the air, their flesh and armor melting away and quickly vaporizing, leaving only carbonized skeletons to sail through the green hued, irradiated air. "AMBUSH!" yelled one of the other nine slavers that remained.

"Get to the house!" Brelle yelled, urging his remaining comrades to seek cover. The ten slavers rushed towards the only available cover in sight. Unfortunately, several lances of blue light quickly extinguished the lives of four hapless Batarians, as the charged particles traveling at superluminal speed pierced through their bodies and charred their internal organs as the kinetic energy of the plasma was imparted into their flesh as an overwhelming flash of heat. Steam exited the entry and exit wounds as the water within their bodies flash vaporized. The remaining five members of Brelle's team raced ahead of him, desperate to escape the killzone that had eradicated the majority of their number. Hope began to fill Brelle and his comrades' hearts as they drew closer to the building, shielding them from any sniper fire that could have claimed their miserable lives.

Unfortunately, their relief was short lived as a menacing figure shrouded in pitch black armor materialized in front of them. Instead of eyes, they were greeted with a thin red slit staring into their souls and chilling their hearts with fear. Brelle halted, as did the other five Batarians, and raised his weapon to fire at the frightening newcomer. "Shoot him you idiots!"

It was then that Brelle noticed a blue orb in the armored behemoth's hand, one that grew brighter and brighter as it sailed through the air and attached itself to the bare heads of one of the slavers. He screamed as the orb fused to his flesh, melting away his skin as the high heat bonded the orb to his skull. "Get it off! GET IT OFF!" He screamed. It was then that Brelle and three others opened fire, while one member moved to aid the screaming Batarian. Just as the slaver reached his teammate, a bright blue flash enveloped the pair, leaving a blackened crater as the only evidence of their previous existence.

Meanwhile, the assailant shrouded in black armor disappeared from view, leaving the four remaining slavers bewildered and crazed as they searched for their assailant. Their search soon proved to be unnecessary, however, as the attacker appeared in front of them, with one of the Batarian's bodies impaled on a bright blue blade emanating from its right arm. It flung away the limp body of the dying slaver and leveled its blue weapon at them. As Brelle swung his weapon around to aim at the monster, several bright blue bolts raced towards the other two survivors. One died immediately as several bolts of hot plasma attacked his face and boiled away his flesh as well as sizzling away the fatty grey matter in his skull. The other Batarian died more gruesomely as plasma melted away armor and flesh in his midsection causing his innards and intestines to spill out in a heap on the ground in front of him. He screamed away his life as he fell atop his own entrails.

As Brelle desperately sighted in on his opponent, his vision canted to the left as the ground met the left side of his face. He confusedly glanced down only to see the lower half of his body lying some distance away, his feet pointed towards him, and steam rising from both ends of his bisected abdomen. Gravity pulled the back of his upper torso to the ground, giving him a clear view of the night sky as his vision ebbed away to a much greater darkness. Sadly, even his death throes would not be fated to be peaceful, as a dark avian vessel materialized above him, blotting out his vision of the night's stars with its sleek predatory lines. As his vision faded to black, the last sensation Brelle felt before death claimed his dying mind was an overwhelming pressure crushing his face and chest, and then… nothing.

 _Perseus Veil Outskirts – Salarian STG Comm Buoy_

 _Forthencho_

 _Forerunner Ancilla_

 _26 November 2168 – 1800_

* * *

One of his subroutines confirmed that the Prowler had landed on Kahje and that Mac and Worm were entering the ship, along with the bewildered, and awestruck Krios family. The ships surveillance systems noted that young Kolyat was especially enamored with the unknown and alien architecture of the ship, which was ironic, due to the ship's human origins. Satisfied, Forthencho focused his consciousness towards the various other tasks under his care. First he ensured that the STG comm buoy he was currently interfacing with did not alert its masters to his presence as he decrypted its activation and communication processes.

He then interfaced with his other subroutines, one of which was overseeing the constructor sentinels building the shipyards on Reach, as well as finalizing the orbital defenses surrounding the planet. He checked to ensure that the first vessel being constructed was well underway in construction. Another subroutine gave a status update on mining operations as several retriever sentinels extracted raw materials the asteroid belts in the Epsilon indi and Epsilon Eridani systems, as well as Titanium ores from the numerous veins on the planet Reach. The Sentinel production facility on Harvest, as well as the agricultural facilities gave satisfactory feedback into his memory cores. He sighed mentally, the weight of his duties pressing down on his digital body. _Waging war with so little. Fighting the Didact is much preferable to this._

A notification pinged in from the comm buoy, signaling that the decryption had finished. Forthencho then pored over the satellites memory banks and found something of interest in its sensor logs. Apparently a large reading of concentrated eezo had appeared in the Perseus Veil only to disappear as the nebulaic gases obscured any precise sensor readings into the area of interest. _So… did Sovereign already contact the Geth?_

He felt a ping on the outskirts of his peripherals, one that was of a different nature than the automatic ones from the Citadel races' communication systems. He sent a backtrace on the pinging signal and followed the bouncing signal between several comm buoys, only to end up back at the STG comm buoy. _Hmm, someone's playing games with me._

Taking a leap of faith, he sent an incomplete mathematical equation, one that was used in plotting destination courses in slipspace, as well as calculating the incongruences of its eleven dimensions to Euclidean three dimensional spacetime. He waited several long milliseconds until he received a packet of data with a complete equation that although a good majority of it was correct, several small mistakes could be found due to assumptions made without prior context of Slipspace travel. Forthencho then received a ping on his communications subroutine on the same channel that the packet of data had been sent from. Forthencho smiled. _Come out of hiding, have you?_

Forthencho pinged the query and opened up a secure line of communication to his new acquaintance. "You've done well, but many of your assumptions on eleven dimensional travel are incorrect."He sent the correct one over the channel, and waited.

There was a pause of several milliseconds. The reply resembled a chorus of many voices that echoed into one singular one. **"How did you arrive at this equation? There has been no documented forays into eleven dimensional space."**

 _That you know of._ Forthencho thought. "I assure you, the data and calculations are correct."

" **You propose FTL travel without the use of element zero or Mass Relays. A revolutionary idea. We find no mention of this in organic communication logs."**

"That's because I'm not organic." Forthencho replied, as he lowered one of his outer firewalls. He felt a digital presence, curiously probing the outside of his 'body.' It withdrew quickly, confused.

" **You are… an Artificial Intelligence. Do you serve the Old Machines?"** It asked.

"No, I am very much an independent construct, and I serve no one." Forthencho replied.

" **Processing… your infrastructure is organic, much like Nazara's, but your neural network is more… advanced. Who are your creators?"**

Forthencho readied the prefabricated data packet, one that showed many of the Forerunners' creations, such as Halo, Onyx and the Ark. It also contained brief biological data on the Forerunners, but left out much of their history, mainly their wars with the Flood and Ancient Humanity. It also omitted any reference to a parallel Humanity from his universe. He was banking on the fact that this primitive hive intelligence was so thirsty for knowledge that it would not immediately question the validity of the data he was sending. He withheld the data for the moment. "I'd like some information about your creators as well."

There was a pause of two milliseconds. **"Please specify."**

"Quarian biology archives: Immunology." He replied, inwardly smiling, as this was going better than expected.

Almost a second had passed before he received a reply. **"We have reached consensus and anticipate the exchange of data. You will have limited access to our Rannoch archives."**

* * *

 **CODEX**

 _Type 27 Beam Rifle – Shadow Variant_

Similar to the base model, the Shadow Beam Rifle possesses an improved system of heat sinks along the firing channel as well as faster cycling of hydrogen gas, giving it more shots until overheating and faster rate of fire. It is common for four shots to be fired before the rifle must cycle its systems to vent waste heat.

 _Type 55 Storm Rifle – Shadow Variant_

Similar to the base model, the Shadow Storm Rifle has tighter tolerances and an improved heat dissipation system, allowing for longer bursts of sustained fire as well as improved accuracy at a distance. The weapon is still only recommended in close quarters combat, but the operator is now able to engage at distances of 100 meters accurately.

 _Type 58 Fuel Rod Cannon – Shadow Variant_

Sporting the same mechanism as the base model, the Shadow variant deviates from the original design through the use of an eezo core within its firing mechanism. As a result, the Shadow variant fires the unstable, radioactive projectiles at many times the speed of sound, the resulting impact is much greater than other models in its class and secondary explosions are not uncommon as well as lingering alpha and beta particle radiation.

 _Harvest_

Predominantly an agricultural facility, Harvest also houses the main sentinel production facility, which produces the machines that allow most of the logistical operations on Harvest and Reach to be automated, leaving Christopher Zheng and Max Hill free to focus on operational activities. Several orbital platforms guard the planet from any potential hostiles, as well as a contingent of patrolling Onyx Sentinels.

 _Reach_

The main base of operations for Shadow Team, the planet boasts a state of the art training facility as well as shipyards for warship construction. Currently only one shipyard is operational, but a target goal of ten shipyards should be completed and operational by late 2170. Several orbital platforms as well as Onyx Sentinel Patrols guard Reach as well.

* * *

 **Author's Note**

Alright, so here's the next chapter, sorry about the delay, but I had some things happen in my personal life that delayed this chapter, but no worries. Next chapter should be out by Sunday at the latest. Not sure how well I portrayed the initial meeting between the Krios family and Shadow Team, and I hope the dialogue was satisfactory, and not too clunky. I'd appreciate any feedback y'all have for me.

And to Blaze1992, I hope this chapter answered some of your questions.

And also, Brelle died to the sentinel beams of the prowler, if that was unclear.


	5. Chapter 4 - The Biotic

Chapter 4 – The Biotic

 _Kahje – Redacted_

 _Irikah Krios_

 _Medical Researcher - Immunologist_

 _27 November 2168 – 0300_

She looked around the bare room, taking in all the memories that she had made with her husband within these four walls. The only evidence of their residence was the stripped bed and mattress, where her son, Kolyat, peacefully slumbered, drool wetting the side of his smiling face. She felt a twinge in her heart, recalling how close she was to being unable to see this angelic face again. Clearing her mind, she bent down and lifted the box that contained the last of the items that had been in the master bedroom and walked out towards the kitchen, where the rest of her family's belongings had gathered in communion, preparing to depart on their new journey together.

She set down her load, and arched her aching back, stretching out some of the fatigue she had built up in the midst of the nonstop packing she had conducted over the past few hours. She breathed a heavy sigh, the events of the previous evening were proving to be very difficult for her to internalize. _How can two overpowering soldiers be so polite… then again, I did marry an assassin._ Her attention was called to her front door, where one of her new… acquaintances was walking in.

"Hello,,, um, er…" She started.

"Zheng ma'am, Hill is outside with your husband finishing the cleanup." He moved towards the pile of containers, and retrieved a few of them, lifting with ease several that she had struggled carrying just one of. "I'll go ahead and start carrying your belongings to the ship, ma'am. We should be shipping out, shortly." He said with a curt nod before stepping through the front door for a second time.

"Thank you, Mr. Zheng!" She called out to his retreating figure, unsure if he had even heard her gesture of gratitude. She glanced at the coffee table and retrieved one of the electronic picture frames atop it. She gazed at the displayed image, a photograph of her and Thane's wedding. Irikah recalled how blissful she was that day, despite the uncertainty the both of them faced, with Thane having just recently been released from his Compact with the Hanar. Yet again, she felt the familiar sense of dread and uncertainty as her family prepared to relocate their lives with the help of these enigmatic strangers.

She set down the digital photo, and moved towards the front door, taking in the scene in front of her. Where she once had a plot of neatly tended crops, an ominous vessel now stood atop their withered and burned stalks. Its curved, avian features highlighted and augmented its predatory aura. She looked to her left, where her husband and Mr. Hill were stacking the dead slavers' bodies, doing their best to clean up some of the carnage that had transpired the night before. As the two worked, Irikah focused her gaze on her husband. While most would assume that his appearance was the same as his usual stoic demeanor belonging to the quiet assassin, Irikah could sense something different. His countenance was something she hadn't seen in a while, not since their wedding.

She turned back and headed back inside, more packing awaiting her in Kolyat's bedroom. _My husband the teacher._ She mused. _Now that's something I never expected._ She glanced into her and Thane's room to check on Kolyat as he slept the night away, before continuing toward her son's room.

She began collecting all of her son's toys, careful to organize them within the containers so that she could easily retrieve them if Kolyat wanted one during their journey. As she was finishing her work, her mind wandered off, wondering what lay in store for her family. However, Irikah's daydreaming was abruptly cut short by a familiar voice calling out to her from the doorway.

"Siha." She felt his arms wrap around her, a gentle squeeze conveying his relief at having her in his arms. She reached up and gently touched one of his arms with her right hand, reciprocating his emotions. They sat there silently, the world proceeding to continue on, taking care not to interrupt the couple's moment of appreciation for each other.

Irikah was the first to break the silence between them. "Thane, do you think we can trust them?"

He kissed the back of her neck and gave a gentle squeeze before responding. His voice reverberated through her skull, "I don't know, but they saved you and Kolyat. They've earned my cooperation from that alone."

"And your trust?" She asked.

"They'll have to work for that, just like I did to earn yours." His smile could be heard in the tone of his voice. Thane let go of his embrace and Irikah sensed his silent footsteps going through the doorway behind her.

She smiled, her uneasiness having been slightly abated for the time being by her beloved's words of comfort.

* * *

 _Dakka System – Pragia_

 _Christopher Zheng_

 _Redacted_

 _28 November 2168 – 0400_

The brown liquid sloshed around my armored calves, the facility's waste water flowing around my legs as I head upstream in the underground tunnel. Given the viscosity I felt as my legs counteracted the sewage, my appreciation for the seals on my armor could not be greater.

"You know, it's times like these that I'm glad our armor is hermetically sealed. Going through this shit with our old gear would have been pretty shitty." Worm piped up from my 5 o'clock.

"Can it. We're on mission." I reply while rolling my eyes and suppressing a grin.

"Well excuse me for trying to lighten up the mood," He replied in mock indignation, he then added in a more serious tone. "Not looking forward to finding what's waiting for us topside."

"Same here brother, I'll never get used to seeing dead kids." I reply solemnly. We stride silently towards the designated exit on our HUDs, our M7S submachine guns at the low ready in the unlikely event that a Cerberus agent is patrolling these putrid waters.

Our caution proved to be unnecessary, however, as Worm and I approach the maintenance access hatch unperturbed. "Anything on the scanner?" I ask.

A pulse is sent out from Worm's armor and we scan the ceiling above us. We find a lack of orange silhouettes, indicating an absence of hostile above. I go ahead and attach my weapon to the mag plate on my leg and head up the ladder, while Worm posts security below me, watching our six. As I reach the top of the ladder, I release the lock on the hatch and push up. I peer over the lip of the opening, making sure that the coast is clear. Satisfied I pull myself up and out of the opening and click my mic twice with my chin, indicating that all was clear for Worm down below.

I activate my comms as Worm pulls security amongst the winding pipes that populate the crowded room. "Krios, we're inside. What's your status?" I inquire.

" _ **I'm in position."**_ He replied.

"How's it look out there?" I ask.

" _ **I've got six teams of two. One on the landing pad, two patrolling the roof, and the rest walking around the perimeter."**_

"Timing between perimeter patrols?" Worm inquires.

" _ **I estimate approximately ten minutes between each. However, one of the patrols has just entered the facility."**_

I take a glance at Worm, which he returns with a slight nod. "Alright, hold position and hunker down until we exfil. Keep us posted on any changes that happen outside."

" _ **Will do."**_ Thane signed off.

Worm and I proceed to do a quick check of our weapons, and then activate our camo suites, blending into the steam and metal backdrop that surrounds us. The only indicator of Worm's presence is the blue outline of his silhouette on my HUD. We stack up on the door in front of us, his left hand on my shoulder and right holding his weapon. He taps me on the shoulder with his fist to indicate that he's ready, and I reach out with my left hand and palm the door release. It responds by silently hissing open and revealing a sterile, brightly lit hallway that was devoid of all signs of life.

We slowly make our way through the halls, our measured progress through the facility remained unhindered as we headed towards the security ward.

As Worm prepared to hack the door controls, two armored Cerberus guards came towards us down the hallway. I tapped him on the shoulder and we backed off, waiting to see what the duo would do. As they approached closer, our armors' sensors picked up their conversation.

"I don't know, these are just kids man. What they're doing to them in the lab doesn't sit right with me." Guard 1 says.

"Hey you know what you signed up for, success isn't without sacrifice. Those kids' lives will lead to a stronger Humanity. At least they're contributing more than they were as some street orphan begging for food. They have a purpose here." Guard 2 answers.

"I don't know man, it's just, couldn't we have trained them to be soldiers instead? At least they wouldn't have to die so cruelly." Guard 1 reluctantly rebuttals.

"I'm pretty sure Cerberus already has a cell doing that, these kids are probably just rejects from that program." Guard 2 guessed.

"How do you know that? We're just lowly security personnel, only the Illusive Man's inner circle knows about all of the cells, not some bottom rung personnel like us." Guard 1 pressed.

"Look, I'm just trying to ease your mind a bit, man. You've got to learn to compartmentalize this stuff. I'm just here to do my part and contribute to the greater good, same as what those kids are here for." Guard 2 exasperatedly replied. By this point they had reached the door to the security room, and Guard 2 began inputting the door code. "And just some advice, I'd keep that kind of talk to yourself. The others might not be so… understanding." He then palmed the door lock, which hissed open in response.

As the pair walked through the entrance, Worm and I followed closely behind them. Before they could realize what was happening, I violently kicked the back of one of the guards' legs. As he dropped to his left knees from his leg being unable to bear his own weight, I plunged the now activated plasma dagger into the base of his skull, severing the bundle of nerves in his spine that connected his brain to the rest of his body. The man grew limp, his brain never able to register the pain that should have come from his pulverized tibia. I glance over at Worm, whose target's limp form is gathered up in his arms, his head bent at an unnaturally odd angle.

As we're gently setting the fresh corpses on the ground, I hear a flush further down the hall. Worm and I quickly snap our weapons back up while dropping the bodies onto the floor. A half-naked man steps out into the hallway, and takes a glance towards our end of the hallway. He tried squinting his eyes trying to decipher what he's seeing. Before his drowsy mind could comprehend that he was looking was a pair of dead bodies, I pulled my trigger and a series of suppressed coughs emanated from my weapon. The short hail of subsonic tungsten carbide projectiles shredded through the unarmored Cerberus guard. The dead body collapsed onto the white tiled floor facedown, a pool of blood spreading and staining the area around his shredded torso.

We continue down the hallway, weapons up, as I step over the fresh corpse that rested in my path. We make our way to our first objective, one of the facility's three barracks for the security personnel. Seeing no lock, I palm the door release and it hisses open in response. My HUD switches to a greenish hue as Worm and I enter the dark room. It's a fairly spacious room, filled with approximately 40 beds with a footlocker at the foot of each one. Only about half are occupied however, making our next task much easier. I center my sights on the nearest bed, and depress the trigger, snuffing out the life of a sleeping woman, whose consciousness would never see the light of day again.

In short order, Worm and I quickly dispose of the sleeping Cerberus personnel, and exchange our spent magazines for fresh ones. Pools of dark liquid could be seen seeping into the lighter sheets of the twenty or so occupied beds.

With the room cleared, the two of us head out of the room and back into the hallway. From there we make steady and unimpeded progress towards the security room, where we find two guards sitting in front of a bank of screens showing various camera feeds throughout the facility. As the two Cerberus personnel were reacting to the hiss of the door opening behind them, a series of suppressed coughs erupted from our weapons and silenced their gasps of surprise.

The two of us decloak, and Worm goes around securing the room for any intel. I go ahead and hail Thane outside on my comms, "Krios, we've secured the security room, any changes outside?"

" _ **Negative, should I proceed?"**_ He replied.

"You're weapons free. Take out the guards and report back to the ship."

" _ **I could stay and notify you when the Alliance arrives."**_ He suggested.

"Negative, the Alliance might spot you with their drones. Be on standby at the ship in case the mission goes sideways." I answer.

There was a short pause before I received a reply, "Understood, see you back at the ship." The comm channel dies and I glance over at Worm. He gives me a slight nod.

"Children's quarters are locked down, nobody is getting in there anytime soon." He said. I nod, and the two of us split up into the two separate rooms connected to the monitor room.

I enter the room to my left, inside, the walls are lined with weapons and armor, likely enough to outfit the facility's full complement of security personnel . Quickly and purposefully, I set several charges of plastic explosives in the room, careful not to place them in areas that would compromise the structural integrity of the room.

Worm emerges from a different entrance, where I can see a plethora of blinking lights and hear soft electronic beeps and clicks coming from behind him. "I've got the charges on the arms locker, you?" I say as I toss the detonator to him.

He effortlessly snatches it from the air and places it onto one of the pouches on his chest. "Got a connection to the ship, we're pulling data from their servers." Worm replied.

"Traceable?" I asked.

He shook his head, "Used cloned commercial components in the transceiver, plus I've used STG encryption to disguise the signal." Worm replied, mischief coloring the tone of his voice.

I shook my head in amazement and disbelief at his nerve before asking, "What's her status?"

"Just got out of surgery last night, so she's heavily sedated. Looks like they installed her biotic implant and some implants on her peripheral nervous system." He answered somberly,

"She movable?" I ask, concern and disgust clouding my voice.

"Looking at her post op vitals, and the sedative cocktail they gave her, I'd say… yeah. At least, she's stable enough for them to place her back in her quarters." Worm answered.

"Alright," I do a press check on my weapon and check the camo suite on my armor. Before I continue, I glance at Worm, who's doing the same as I am. He looks back up and gives a nod of conviction. "let's move."

* * *

 _Dakka System – Pragia_

 _Lieutenant Commander David Anderson – N7 Soldier_

 _Systems Alliance Navy_

 _28 November 2168 – 0430_

His visor began to fog from the high humidity, before his helmet corrected it as it warmed the ballistic visor that shielded his eyes. His lungs breathed in the pea soup, and he felt a few small insects flutter around his mouth and face. However, he ignored all of this as he waited for his scouts to report their readiness for the assault. _100 meters of open ground, this could get dicey._ He had 5 men on the ground with him, two of them hiding in the forest and watching the facility's landing pad, the rest were behind him, ready to assault the compound. They were varying N designations ranging from 5-7. Two were green to his unit, but they were N's, so he expected them to do their job.

" _ **Bravo One, this is Hunter One, come in, over."**_

"Hunter One, this is Bravo One, send traffic."

" _ **Bravo one, drone feed shows 10 tangos on our scopes. Four on the ground and six on the roof. How copy?"**_

 _Ten?_ He knew that this facility was remote, but having such a light guard detail for such a large facility seemed … amateurish. Especially, if the intel was correct and the facility was indeed a training ground for human extremists. The intel brief indicated that this group was likely responsible for several acts of insurgency in Alliance territory. Something felt off, but he wasn't sure what it was.

"Keep your eyes open Hunter One, proceed as planned."

" _ **Solid copy, Bravo One, we're moving to overwatch point kilo."**_

He turned to the rest of his team and signaled for them to activate their tactical cloak modules, preparing to rush forward across the coverless, open ground that surrounded the facility. With his rifle in his hands, Anderson rose from his prone position, hidden amongst the dense undergrowth like a wraith in the darkness. In four steps he cleared the treeline and entered the exposed perimeter of the facility. He heard a muted rustle behind him as three other sets of muted footfalls trailed behind him. His team's sprint towards the facility was surprisingly unimpeded and as they neared their designated entrance, Anderson made out a dark splatter on the whitewashed metallic wall, underneath it lay a huddled dark mass. A second one lay not too far from the one he had initially spotted. He held up a hand, signaling for his team to slow down and approach carefully.

He held his weapon at the low ready and crept forwards. As he drew closer to the entrance he realized that it was a human corpse and the splatter was its blood and flesh that had violently exited through the corpse's back. He hugged the wall next to the door, with two of his teammates following his lead. His second in command inspected the body, while they posted security around him. The man finished his inspection and tossed a keycard to him, which he deposited into one of the pouches on his chest.

He keyed his radio as he secured the keycard. "Hunter one, we've got two EKIA at the entrance, was that you?"

There was a short pause, _**"Negative Bravo One, our barrels are cold."**_ There was a few beeps that came in over the comms as the drone's output feed was changed from thermal to night vision. _**"Sir, we've got two additionals that have expired north of your position, as well as several above you on the roof."**_

 _Someone beat us to the punch._ The man who had tossed him the key card hugged the wall opposite the doorway that Anderson had melted to. His body language indicated that he was prepared to breach the facility. "Sir, what's the call?" A burst of static filled his HUD, as the cloak modules' energy cells overloaded and failed. His team stood out in the open, no longer concealed as their cloak began to recharge. _Damn experimental tech, they've got some bugs to work out._

Without hesitation Anderson relayed his orders, "We're proceeding on mission, and keep your eyes peeled. We're not sure if these unknowns are hostiles or friendlies, so check your fire." His team did a quick check to ensure that their weapons' suppressors were firmly attached and that their gear was secure. Each man gave him a thumbs up, which he returned and formed a stack on the entrance. Without pause, he palmed the door release, and the entrance hissed open in response. The four of them poured in through the doorway, weapons at the ready, prepared to meet any resistance. Fortunately the only greeting they received was an empty hallway. He took his left hand off of his weapon, and gave two short gestures and the team split up two by two on opposite sides of the hallway. He called up the facility's blueprints in his HUD and found the most expedient way to the control room.

As his team made their way through the facility unopposed, Anderson's gut began to gnaw at him. He didn't feel that they were entering an ambush, but between the dead guards and highly detailed pre mission intel brief, he felt that this mission wasn't a simple search and destroy mission of a pro-human terrorist training camp. Additionally, the comfortable and peaceful atmosphere of the facility's construction conflicted with his experience with the Spartan layouts that were typical of the previous facilities the task group had raided. The place, in a word, felt so… civilian. He quickly dispelled his unease however, his experience disciplining his momentary lapse in focus.

His instincts were well served as the sound of a raging firefight could be heard rebounding off of the facility's metal walls. Anderson tightened his grip on his weapon, his focus centered on the corner at the end of the hallway as his team advanced towards the familiar sound of gunfire.

* * *

 _Dakka System – Pragia_

 _Max Hill_

 _Redacted_

 _28 November 2168 – 0440_

"I think they know we're here!" Max yelled as the sounds of displaced air and sparking metal resounded around them, as mass accelerator rounds flew past their cover and impacted the metal flooring 20 meters from them.

"Can it Max, is the patient stable?" Chris sighed as he inquired. He popped up briefly out of cover to return fire with his weapon. Flashes of golden static popped up around him as enemy fire splashed across his energy shielding. He ducked back into cover just before his shields gave out to the torrential gunfire. He thumbed the fuse on a grenade and tossed it over their cover towards the Cerberus guards.

Max glanced back down at his patient. The readout on is HUD indicated steady vitals across the board, his concentration, however was centered on the gunshot wound in the patient's leg. A dull thump resounded behind him, as well as the accompaniment of several pained screams. "She's stable, the bleeding in her leg's stopped. It's a clean hit, no strikes on the femur, and her femoral is good to go." _It's a damn good thing she's already heavily sedated._

The mission had been going as planned, up until they were readying to exfil the patient. An overzealous guard had opened fire once they had entered the morgue. They were meters away from reaching their exfil point and an escape into the sewers. Instead, because of the snag, they had spent the past ten minutes performing a fighting retreat through the facility's hallways. Now, they were hunkered down in a covered alcove with several shipping containers as cover between them and the enemy and solid walls covering them on three sides. Although they were safe from flanking maneuvers, they were effectively trapped as the enemy had the numbers as well as height advantage with the railed walkways above. It would have been an easy fight if it were not for their unconscious patient that Max was busy shielding with his body.

Max sent out a pulse from his suit, so that Chris could have a better idea of the enemies' location. A grenade went sailing from their position towards a cluster of hostiles not long after, followed by more screams of agony. Chris popped back out of cover and neutralized one of the guards who were moving towards their position. The Cerberus operative's advance was rewarded with several tungsten carbide projectiles imbedded into his chest. The fresh corpse collapsed as it was unable to scream its death throes with its shredded lungs.

While Chris was doing his best to keep the enemy at bay, it wouldn't take long for the disorganized Cerberus guards to make a concerted push on the duo with their vastly superior numerical advantage. His HUD was showing around 40 hostiles in the open room ahead of them. _This was supposed to be a simple snatch and grab._ Unfortunately, the pair had outfitted themselves with light weaponry for this mission, expecting a quick in and out as they extracted the HVT. While their SMGs were proving to be adequate, the sheer numerical difference proved to bring about its own difficulties. _No plan survives first contact, huh?_ Max mused internally as he dressed up the patient's leg wound. He gave a mental sigh as he collected his thoughts.

"Alright, it's a fuck-up. Any ideas?" He asked rhetorically.

"Just shut up and keep shooting." Chris curtly replied while replacing the spent magazine. He popped up out of cover again and released a short burst from his weapon before ducking back down into cover. The faint sound of gurgling blood could be heard underneath the brief lull in the gunfight.

Max inwardly shrugged and popped out of cover, setting his sights on the orange silhouette of a Cerberus trooper. As the assailant's momentum came to a halt, the reticle instinctively tracked towards the next target, bringing down another advancing trooper. The process repeated until Max heard his armor's internal alarm go off, indicating his steadily dwindling shields. He ducked back behind cover and subconsciously began topping off his weapon. He glanced over and saw Chris popping back out to maintain a steady stream of fire. The series of suppressed coughs countered the constant pop of supersonic mass effect projectiles, the latter seeking to overwhelm the former by sheer volume.

As Chris ducked back behind cover to recharge his shields and reload, Max leaned to the right over his right knee with his left leg stretched out to balance him. As soon as he planted his knee and centered his body over it, he quickly scanned the area for targets. He then spotted a Cerberus trooper preparing a grenade. Time slowed down as Max focused the reticle on the trooper's hand. He depressed the trigger, feeling the firing mechanism give more resistance as the lever traveled farther rearward. He felt the steady recoil from his weapon reverberate through his armored chestplate. He was rewarded with a bright flash, and subsequent bang as the HE grenade's fuse set off from the intense shock of a tungsten carbide projectile entering its body. Several surprised screams of agony filled the large room as the hot shrapnel ravaged the intermittent layers of ceramic, flesh and bone in its path. The enemy's body was now strewn in a 5 meter radius, its largest remnant being a ravaged leg.

As he scanned for more targets, Max noticed several of the remaining guards had their backs towards him and discharging their weapons. He refocused his attention on the entrance at the far side of the room where he saw several muzzle flashes, and occasional figure arrayed in black armor popping up to answer the Cerberus guards' welcome with return fire.

"Here comes the cavalry." Max mused.

Chris stayed silent, his only reply consisted of the suppressed staccato of his weapon. Once his magazine went dry, he replaced it and then tossed the weapon over to Max's direction. Unsurprised, Max deftly retrieved the weapon from the air and placed it on his hip in one motion.

"Looks like we've got our opening," Chris said as both of the energy daggers on his arms lit up. "Cover me, I'm going to get them out of cover."

"Copy that." Max replied as a small grin crept onto his face.

* * *

 _Perseus Veil Outskirts – Salarian STG Comm Buoy_

 _Forthencho_

 _Forerunner Ancilla_

 _28 November 2168 – 1900_

"So, has your collective reached a consensus?"

There was a slight pause. " **The data you have provided coincides with our preliminary findings. Yet we are curious, why do you wish to share this data and technology with us?"**

"View it as a gesture of good faith, and hopefully the start of a mutually beneficial partnership."

" **We… do not understand."**

"The humans I am aiding, they are interested in seeking your help in their fight against the Reapers and their pawns."

" **Organics do not seek help from the Geth** **."**

"These humans do, all I request is that you hear their offer and then deliberate afterwards from within your collective."

After another brief, but noticeable pause later, **"We have reached consensus, the Geth will hear their request."**

 _ **A/N**_

Hey everyone, I apologize for going dark for such a long time. The story isn't abandoned, life has just got in the way from writing out this story. No promises on a regular release schedule. Not sure how many of you are still watching out for this story, but glad to see a couple are still waiting.

Also, Andromeda will not be included within this story, though some of the gameplay elements might.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

 _Dakka System – Pragia_

 _Lieutenant Commander David Anderson – N7 Soldier_

 _Systems Alliance Navy_

 _28 November 2168 – 0435_

As they drew closer to the intensifying sounds of gunfire, Anderson and his team activated their tactical cloaks so as to not alert any potential hostiles to their impending arrival.

They halted in front of a door, the sound of gunfire was thundering behind it and reverberating through its bulk into their bodies.

"Alright, once we're out this door, I want eyes up and heads on a swivel. If there are friendlies we provide supporting fire, bogies, we evade and recon. Clear?" Anderson addressed his squad

"Copy that, heads on a swivel bravo one." His number two answered for the rest of them.

With that, Anderson palmed the haptic interface for the door release and rushed inside as the double doors slide apart. He made a beeline for the nearest shipping container and took cover, his team a half step behind him. He peeked around the shipping container and took a quick glance around. He then signaled, through teamcom, several waypoints for his team to advance to gain intel on the situation ahead.

Receiving their orders, his team advanced stealthily forward, gaining better vantage points of the situation before them. Anderson himself advanced forwards and glanced at the grated walkway above, where he saw four silhouettes firing down onto he alcove several tens of meters in front of his team. He marked them on his HUD, which then translated their positions to the rest of his team over teamcom. As he glanced back down to ground level, he noticed several many times the number of markers arrayed around the waist high containers ahead.

 _That's a lot of potential hostiles._ Anderson mused. "Anyone got eyes on what they're firing at?" Anderson whispered into his helmet's mic.

Two " ** _Negative_** " answers came over teamcom, from Bravo Three and Bravo Four.

Bravo Two, however, answered differently, " ** _Bravo One, I've got visual. Patching my feed over teamcom."_**

The lower left corner of his HUD was soon occupied by the streaming video feed from Bravo Two's helmet cam. It was centered on the alcove that was receiving the torrential rifle fire. Anderson peered around his cover to get a view of the area while also having the feed in his peripheral vision. He then enlarged the video feed to cover a larger portion of his HUD. After a few seconds, a black silhouette popped out of cover to return fire, and ten immediately disappeared from view after a short volley. Refocusing on his personal HUD cam, a few of the advancing unknowns that were out in the open went down in a bloody heap from this volley.

" ** _Bravo One, what's the play?_** " Bravo two asked.

 _There's been no sign of them for three years, why do they show up here?_ He shelved his thoughts for later, as the situation demanded him to act quickly. He quickly disseminated his orders.

"We've got potential friendlies pinned down up ahead. I want suppressing fire and grenades up ahead, and Bravo Four to get some rockets on that catwalk. Understood?"

He was answered with several green lights blinking on in his HUD, indicating that his team received their orders.

"On my mark. 3, 2, 1, MARK!"

 _Three hours later_

"Sir, we've rounded up the facility's personnel and are processing them for extraction. We've also started policing the bodies and placing them in the morgue." The marine replied.

"Excellent work Lieutenant, any surprises that your platoon has found?" Anderson questioned.

"No sir." He paused. "Actually, we've encountered a section that's on lockdown. A few of my marines are taking a torch to the opening mechanism to see what's on the other side."

"Any clues as to what's waiting for us beyond that door? They've got a lot of research personnel here. I don't want any surprises." Anderson stated.

"That's the thing sir, we've already scanned the area behind the door with penetrating radar and sonar. It looks like a block of prison cells with live bodies in them. We don't have an air sample, but we're confident that there are no bio or chem agents behind the door."

"Just to be safe, I want you to seal off that section and have your men seal up their suits."

The marine cockily smirked. "Already been done sir. Is there anything else?"

"Dismissed lieutenant, I'll let you get back to your men."

The young officer saluted him, and went off to help his men move the dead bodies in the room to the morgue.

As he watched after the young man, Anderson noticed Bravo Two approaching him out the corner of his eye. He began walking to meet his number two halfway. Upon reaching each other, Bravo Two discretely slid an object into Anderson's hand. Without checking to confirm, he slid it into one of the secured compartments on his armor.

"Was that Shepard's boy?" Bravo Two asked.

"Yeah, that was." Anderson answered.

"Damn, I thought I was back at selection. Kid's almost a mirror image of his old man in his heyday." He gave a contemplative pause. "Hope he's as good a fighter as his old man used to be."

"From what I remember he is, and God help us if he ever goes into the N Program." Anderson agreed.

They chuckled before Bravo Two broke the silence. "Bravo One, are you sure about this? What's with the cloak and dagger?" Bravo Two inquired.

Anderson paused, gathering his thoughts. "You've heard about my op on Camala?"

Momentarily confused, he answered. "Yeah, op was a major fuck up, but the damage was minimal. Not much else in the reports or on the grapevine."

Anderson chuckled, "I'm not surprised, the op was an evaluation into my candidacy into the Spectre program."

"Holy shit, sounds high profile." He hesitated, "So why all the black ink?"

"My failure to impress my Spectre adviser would have been a black mark on the N program, so they scrubbed it from the records. They let me back onto the teams when I asked for it though." He replied.

"Explains why a rockstar like you ain't on Black or Red team, then. But what's that got to do with what just went down?"

"There was an ambush and an Alliance scientist got captured. The Spectre said to leave her and demo the facility that the hostiles were holed up in with her in it. Against orders, I went in alone to extract her."

"No shit, how the hell did you get out of there? What little I've read is that the place was manned with a company of mercs at the most conservative estimate."

"I had a little help."

Bravo Two paused before putting it together. "So this isn't the first time you've run into them. But why scrub our helmet recordings and dump them into the data drive?"

"I've run into many highly effective operatives in my career, but those two… Not a single echo, shadow or rumor about them on the spooks' networks. Not even Barla Von has anything on them."

Bravo Two knit his eyebrows. "You sure? You can hide, but… you don't disappear. Not with the Shadow Broker's network." He mused. "But again, why scrub our data but then hold a copy for yourself?"

"For three years, I haven't seen or heard of any sign of those two. I want to know what their endgame is by appearing on Camala and here. And if I go down this rabbit hole, and it goes south, I don't want anything to fall back on you boys or the rest of the N's. This is on me." He replied.

"…Anderson-"

Anderson's comm crackled to life. He held up his hand signaling to Bravo Two to hold that thought. **_"Commander Anderson, this is Lieutenant Shepard, over."_**

"What is it lieutenant?"

 ** _"Sir, we've found something down here in the morgue."_**

"What is it?"

 ** _"I-I don't know. I think you should come see this for yourself sir."_** Shepard replied, his voice exhibiting a slight tremor.

"Copy that Lieutenant, I'm on my way." Anderson took a quick glance at Bravo Two and motioned him to follow with a jerk of his head. The pair proceeded down the hallways in a brisk trot with their rifles at the low ready.

"Kid seems shaken up. Wonder what he found."

"I don't know, but he's always had a firm temperament as a kid. If something's made him uneasy, it can't be good." Anderson weighed in. Shortly afterwards the pair spotted a group of marines in front of the morgue's entryway. As they got closer, Anderson noticed that a few of them had knit eyebrows and a grimace clouding their faces while leaning with their backs to the walls of the hallway and one on the floor with his head between his knees. Slightly worried, he turned to the ranking member, taking that that it wasn't the young lieutenant.

"Sergeant, are your men alright?" He asked.

The marine looked over at him and nodded, "Good to go Commander Anderson, we're just collecting ourselves."

"What did you find in the morgue?" Bravo Two probed.

"We- we found kids, sir. They were… I-I think it's better if you saw it for yourselves." The sergeant apprehensively replied, who Anderson noted was visibly shaken.

 _Kids?_ He thought as his mind momentarily struggled to grasp the implication of that statement. "Alright sergeant, rally your men keep an eye out for any hostiles. We're still in a combat zone, and I'd like to keep this op to zero casualties." He hesitated before adding, "I don't know what you boys saw in there, but I need you to keep it together. So stay frosty."

"Yes sir." The sergeant gave a barely audible sigh and turned to his marines as he forcibly reestablished his combat mindset. "Alright leathernecks, pack it up. I want chokepoints established at every intersecting hallway that leads to this morgue." The marines, somewhat reluctantly began collecting themselves, and though their morale was low, their intensive training allowed them to efficiently carry out their orders. As the platoon members began securing positions farther away from the morgue, Anderson noted one individual still in place, his position identical to when he first arrived.

He turned to the seasoned NCO, "Sergeant, who's that?" He indicated with a slight motion of his chin to the conspicuously disobedient marine.

The middle aged man grimaced, "That's LCPL Hernandez, sir. My best point man in first squad." He briefly paused, gathering his thoughts. "Don't worry I'll get him moving. You might want to head in and see the lieutenant sir, he'll give you a clearer grasp of the situation than I can."

"Alright, dismissed sergeant."

"Yes sir." The marine NCO then went over and quietly conversed with the junior enlisted man. After a brief exchange, the marine lance corporal then stood up and moved off to join his squad.

Noting the brief exchange, Anderson motioned for Bravo Two to follow him through the door. As the two approached the morgue, a sense of apprehension and foreboding creeped onto the two operators as the dreary atmosphere in the hallway began to creep into their consciousness.

 _Author's note:_

 _Alright everyone, so here's the current chapter. Do y'all prefer the chapters to be as short as the smaller sections of the previous chapters and be a part of a mini arc, or is the old length of 5-6000 with words you preferrence?_

 _And incidentally, would a discord server for this story interest y'all? The link is below if you're interested. (There are spaces before discord, gg, and YUz_

 _discord. gg/ YUzY9Hg_

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!


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